Homily for 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 17, 2011
Rom 8: 26-27
Ursulines, Willow Dr., N.R.

“The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8: 26).

When the apostles wanted to learn how to pray, it was easy for them to turn to Jesus and ask him to teach them. And Jesus gave them that most basic of all prayers which we call the Lord’s Prayer.

In the physical absence of Jesus, we can and do still use his prayer. But often we want more. We may be unsure of what to pray for, or we may suffer interminable distractions, or we may want some new formula that’s a little less rote, or we may want to be able to put more heart into what we say to God. There are so many ways in which we feel our prayer to be inadequate, so that “we do not know how to pray as we ought.”

There’s an old Eastern European Jewish story that might encourage us:

When the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov saw misfortunate threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune averted.

Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Magid of Mezritch, had occasion, for the same reason, to say the prayer, he would go to the same place in the forest and say: “Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer.” And again, the miracle would be accomplished.

Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say: “I do not know how to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, but I know the place, and this must be sufficient.” Once again, a miracle.

Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: “I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is to tell the story, and this must be sufficient.” And it was sufficient.[1]

It’s a story of God’s sufficiency when our own knowledge or resources are insufficient. It’s a story of grace, if you will. It’s a story of “the Spirit coming to the aid of our weakness.”

In the Our Father we pray that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. But we seldom know what that will is. (Stephen Vincent Benet’s epic poem John Brown’s Body has a magnificent scene in which Lincoln struggles to discern that amid the carnage of the Civil War.) Too often we try to get God to accommodate himself to our will. Praying in the Spirit would have us praying like Jesus in the Garden: “Not my will but yours be done” (Matt 26:39). We’d leave ourselves open to the apparent frustration of our own hopes and desires.

We all know that St. Monica prayed for years and years for her son’s conversion. When he decided to move from Carthage to Rome in order to pursue his worldly ambitions, she prayed that he’d change his mind or that something would prevent his sailing to Italy, where she was afraid his faith and morals would meet complete shipwreck. God ignored her pleas, and Augustine sailed to Rome. Apparently that was because God had other plans, which became evident when the young rhetoric teacher moved on to Milan—at that time the home of the imperial court and so the place for an ambitious young man to be—and Augustine fell under the influence of Milan’s talented and holy bishop, Ambrose. So Monica’s more fundamental prayer, that her son be converted, was heard altho at least one of her intermediate prayer, that he stay in Africa, was not.

So our prayer, if it’s really prayer and not just the projection of our own egos, has to rely upon the ultimate wisdom of God, which is to say, on the Holy Spirit.
Such reliance is the best possible way of praying. “The Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings” (8:26). What we don’t know how to pray for, or what we can’t find the right words for, the Spirit knows and puts before the Father—no words necessary. The longing of our hearts, the Spirit carries to the Father—whether our hearts are heavy or light, whether they are bursting with praise or collapsed in anguish, whether we need forgiveness or guidance.

Of course we can use words too. In her column in the current issue of Catholic New York, Mary DeTurris Poust recounts how one afternoon she “was complaining about some minor problem,” and Chiara, her five-year-old daughter, “said, ‘Why don’t you just talk to God?’ Chiara one day had overheard her “frazzled” mom “talking out loud to God” and “picked up on the fact” that Mom often talks to God “not in traditional prayer form but as if I am talking on the phone with a friend—when I’m stressed.” Without intending it, Mary had taught Chiara a wonderful way to pray—just talk to God like he’s your “good friend, someone who will always listen.”[2]

Because God is our friend. Jesus assures us that we’re his friends, and he’s given us his Spirit to reassure us. Just a few verses before the passage that’s our reading today, Paul tells the Christians of Rome that the gift of the Holy Spirit enables them to address God as Abba because, in giving them Jesus’ Spirit, he has adopted them as his own (8:15). He’s Dad; Jesus is friend and brother. If that weren’t enuf for them to read our hearts, the Spirit takes care of whatever more’s needed: “And the one who searches hearts [the Father] knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he [the Spirit] intercedes for the holy ones [those made holy because he dwells in their hearts] according to God’s will” (8:27). The Spirit of Jesus, deep within us, makes our prayer to the Father, uttering what we can’t because our human nature is too ignorant or too frail or too distracted or too overwhelmed by our sins or not bold enuf to come to the Father and demand his attention.

What is required of us for prayer is only 2 things: 1st, that we want to pray, that we make the effort, that we put in the time, that we give God a piece of our schedules; and 2d, that we really want to be open to him, to his will, to his desire to make us holy and bring us into his world—not the other way around. When Paul speaks of “the intention of the Spirit” and of “how we ought to pray,” he’s speaking in the context of our eternal destiny: “the glory to be revealed for us” (8:18), “creation set free from slavery to corruption and sharing in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (8:21), “the redemption of our bodies” (8:23), our hope of salvation (8:24). The Spirit of Jesus most gladly intercedes for us, adds his “inexpressible groanings” to the “groanings of creation in its labor pains even until now” (8:22), that we might be saved despite all our weakness.

[1] Recounted by Brian Cavanaugh, TOR, The Sower’s Seeds: 120 Inspiring Stories for Preaching, Teaching and Public Speaking (Mahwah: Paulist, 2004), pp. 14-15

[2] “Building Prayer Into Busy Lives,” CNY, July 14, 2011, p. 35.

Homily for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 10, 2011
Matt 13: 1-9
Christian Brothers, Iona College, N.R.

“Jesus spoke to them at length in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow’” (Matt 13: 3).

The Indians near Plimoth Plantation helped our socio-cultural ancestors to survive by teaching them to plant corn efficiently: one kernel to a small hole, covered over, and a fish laid upon it as fertilizer. That method worked marvelously, assuring the Pilgrims a bountiful harvest, and survival.

But that method doesn’t work with most grains and isn’t how people sowed their fields of wheat, barley, rye, and oats for thousands of years. They did just what Jesus pictures for us in his parable today—profligately scattered handfuls of seed broadside as they walked up and down their fields—as you might observe a landscaper today doing with grass seed.

Sower with Setting Sun by Van Gogh (and h/t to the Deacon)

By that method lots of seed is lost, even today, landing on rock, being eaten by birds, being trampled underfoot, and in the case of a peasant farmer’s field, being overrun and choked out by weeds. Yet, enuf seed lands on good soil and, with proper moisture, it grows and produces more grain than the farmer began with, so that he can harvest food for the season ahead and still set aside seed grain for the next planting.

Jesus’ parable is a metaphor for God’s profligately strewing his word among the human race. Not every person is receptive, to be sure, but there’s still a bountiful harvest of hearts for the Divine Farmer. In the 1st reading the prophet Isaiah spoke of the effectiveness of God’s word: whatever God has decreed will be carried out. Whatever grace he has sown among human beings will bear its fruit in salvation.

We are some of those human beings among whom God is profligately sowing the word of his grace. Sometimes are hearts are stony and non-receptive. Sometimes our hearts tell us, “This seed is good, and I want to take it in and let it grow”; but—like youthful Augustine—we also want to cling to the weeds and thorns of our passions, our worldly comforts, our inertia, and we don’t nurture the seed and let it grow up.

Fortunately for us, God isn’t easily put off. Just as he kept coming for Augustine, he keeps after us, keeps strewing the word in our direction. If we can just give that word a little soil in which to sink a root, God will do the rest: “so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it” (Is 55:11). So let us not be discouraged by our lack of spiritual progress, by our repeated failures to practice this virtue or that, by our having to confess the same sins over and over. Have faith in the power of God’s word to bear fruit in you, to convert you ever so slowly into his disciple.

There’s another way in which this parable carries meaning for us. Scripture commentator Megan McKenna tells of that way in another parable:*

There was a woman who was depressed over the state of the world. She longed for love among her family and friends, peace among all people, compassion for the poor and vulnerable. There were problems everywhere as she saw so much selfishness, greed, hatred, lack of moral values.

One day she came upon a little shop. She walked in and was surprised to see someone behind the counter who reminded her of Jesus. She couldn’t believe it really was Jesus, but the similarity was so striking that she just had to go to him and ask: “Excuse me, are you Jesus?”

“I am.”

“Do you work here?”

“No, I’m the owner.”

“What do you sell here?”

“Well, I really don’t sell anything. It’s all free. I have here just about anything you might want. You’re welcome to walk around the aisles and see what you might be interested in. Make a list of all the things you want and bring it back to me. I’ll see what I can do for you.”

She was amazed at what she saw on the shelves: peace on earth, food to feed the hungry, clean air and water, warm clothing for the poor, forgiveness. The woman compiled a long list and brought it back to Jesus.

When Jesus looked at all the items she had written down, he smiled and said, “No problem.” He bent down behind the counter and ran his finger thru several boxes. He then stood up and laid out a series of small envelopes for the woman.

“What are these?” she asked.

“Seed packets,” Jesus replied. “This is a catalog store.”

“You mean I don’t get the finished product?” she asked.

“No,” Jesus said. “Just take these seeds home, plant them, nurture them, help them grow, and you’ll be quite pleased with the results.”

She said, “Oh!” and left the store without taking anything with her.
Most of us want God to solve problems for us overnite, and when he does, that’s great. But mostly he gives us the means and the help we need and calls us to have faith and patience.

And the point of that little parable is that we who follow Jesus also have to sow his word. It’s hard work, and the results don’t show immediately. Sometimes our efforts to be peacemakers, to reconcile, to improve the physical or the social environment, to get someone to believe in a better future for himself, to round up lost souls for the Lord seem to be getting nowhere, bearing no fruit. But we have to keep trying, keep strewing the word of God all around us by what we say, even more by how we live.

Only in the great harvest at the end of time will we see what God has done—in our own hearts and in the hearts of countless men and women whose lives we’ve touched in some fashion.


* Quoted by Fr. Joe Robinson, Guiding Light: Steadfast to the Son. Cycle A (China, Ind.: Shepherds of Christ, 2010), pp. 116-117, with some minor edits. It’s not clear whether the last paragraph that I quote comes from Ms. McKenna or Fr. Robinson.

Homily for 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 8, 1984
Matt 11: 25-30
Holy Rosary, Birmingham, Ala.
St. John Bosco, B’ham

Once again, last weekend (Sat. eve at Willow Towers) I preached without a written text; and once again I have recourse to an oldie for those who may be following the blog.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the fellow who kept complaining to God about how heavy was the cross he had to carry thru life. One day St. Peter came to him and said, “I want to take you to the storeroom and let you look for another cross to carry.” So they went to a huge warehouse where thousands of crosses were kept for use by all of mankind. St. Peter told the complainer, “Put your cross down over there, and go look around till you find one you like.”

So the fellow started rummaging thru these thousands of crosses. Some he found impossibly heavy, and some shamefully light. He’d hoist them onto his back and try a few steps, like you take a couple of steps in a new pair of shoes. Well, after a couple of hours of all this, he finally found a cross that seemed to be just right for him, neither too heavy nor too light nor too long. He brought it over to St. Peter and said, “I think I’ve found one that suits me. What do you think?” “Well,” said St. Peter, “I think you’ve found the one you brought in here.”

In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you” (Matt 11:28).

Jesus addresses his words to every one of us. From time to time all of us are overwhelmed by life’s problems; we think we can’t handle our crosses. No doubt there are some of us whom these problems nearly crush.

We have to admit that earning a living, raising the kids, cleaning the house, keeping up the yard, studying, and visiting the in-laws all begin to grind on us. Serious illness in the family, or a death, can devastate us. Perhaps unemployment drags some of us down. The guilt of our sins is an awesome weight. Obviously there’s no shortage of possible problems I could list, problems that are real burdens for someone.

Jesus was certainly familiar with the burdens of daily life—even with burdens that were more than routine. When he was small, his family were refugees in a foreign country. His foster-father was a skilled craftsman in a small country town and may well have had trouble finding enuf work. His mother had to go to the village well at least once a day to draw water for cooking and cleaning, besides making, mending, and washing clothes, buying food. And of course keeping tabs on little Jesus and then worrying about him, the way mothers do, as he grew but didn’t seem to be settling down into normal village routine. We speculate that St. Joseph must have died when Jesus was a young man because Joseph isn’t mentioned in the gospels after the temple incident when Jesus was 12.

In his own ministry, Jesus had to contend with the misunderstanding not only of many religious leaders but of his own family; quite plainly, they thought he was crazy (Matt 3:21). Jesus’ disciples, his closest friends, failed to grasp what he was trying to teach them about the kingdom of God, humility, forgiveness, and so on. Jesus came into daily contact with life’s misery: with serious illness, death at an early age, tyrannical government, heavy taxation, poverty, social discrimination, religious hypocrisy, illiteracy, the problems of subsistence farming on rocky ground under a blistering sun, and the burden of sin and guilt.

So Jesus’ words, “Come to me, all you who are weary,” should have had a universal appeal in 30 A.D., and they came from a man who was familiar with weariness and burden.

He promised to refresh those who accepted his invitation. He promised them a yoke with which to haul their burdens, not a heavy yoke for a heavy burden, like oxen dragging a plow or turning a millstone, but a yoke that is easy and burden that is light (Matt 11:30).

What is the yoke of Jesus? He hints at it when he says, “Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Gentleness and humility are the yoke he offers us, the yoke that refreshes our souls, that gives us rest.

Gentleness and humility make us patient with what we cannot control in life. They make us understanding of the faults of other people—and even of our own weaknesses and sins. They enable us to admit our sinfulness and seek forgiveness. They remind us that we don’t have to solve our problems alone, but we are joined to Jesus; it’s his yoke we wear, and our burdens have become his. They remind us that the problems, even the complete disasters of life, are only temporary, that is, limited to time, to this world. But the kingdom of God is eternal; it is our real home. In it are no poverty, no sickness, no death, no emotional devastation—only the everlasting love of God for us and us for God and one another.

The cross, the yoke, the burden we carry in life is inevitable. You’ve never known a person who didn’t have problems. But our burden becomes lighter when we see it as the yoke of Jesus or as a share in his cross. For then he is carrying it with us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you.”

A Priest with the Heart of Don Bosco

A Priest with the Heart
of Don Bosco
Homily of Bishop Luc Van Looy, SDB
Ordination of Frs. Matt DeGance and Mike Leschinsky
July 2, 2011. Our Lady of the Valley Church, Orange, N.J.

Don Bosco was a priest of a very different kind. He learned from Don [Father] Cafasso that even young people in prison were not really bad. He decided to keep them off the streets and give them a good education. Education for him was at the same time faith-education. He renewed the catechetical system in such a way that catechism was not just the teaching of doctrine, but the witnessing presence of the priest or catechist. He brought faith to society, and the living environment of the young to the Church.


When Jesus asked the disciples to go out to the villages and proclaim the Good News, to cure the sick, he was aware these men had little understood his teaching and the purpose of God’s sending him into the world. So Don Bosco gave great responsibility to young lads over others, engaging them in the educational and pastoral system of the Oratory of Valdocco.

He was a priest, always and everywhere. And a humble but convinced, poor but caring priest. Maybe in these times of the Church in which we are living we need to combine poverty and courage: poor by choice, and daring by conviction. These are two gifts we all should ask for our priests and deacons, and in fact for all Christians. To be poor today we will go against the mainstream. Also daring to speak about the Gospel and continue to tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth needs courage and may not always be welcome. The man and woman in the street does not ask for our message; maybe many are afraid to recognize for themselves that deep in their heart they crave for the mystery, for the transcendent, for what cannot be seen or touched or measured.

Our young people of today need priests who open the door to faith, to spirituality, to trustworthy relationships. So many are afraid to engage themselves with others, and especially to engage themselves for life in any value and witness-oriented lifestyle. A priest today is not in the first place an organizer, a director or coordinator—God bless those who are—but first and foremost we need inspirers; more than teachers, we need witnesses of faith, said Paul VI. A priest today listens to God and to people. His first duty is to become a disciple. The only way to become a teacher and a witness is to begin with discipleship. If you want to give water to your garden, it is better to keep a receptacle full so it can overflow, rather than to use a hose or a plastic pipe. First you need to fill yourself with God and Gospel, with Jesus and God’s love; then your witness will be credible.

For this the priest has the Eucharist, day after day, to grow totally in the spirit of Christ. The Eucharist is his way of proclaiming the Word, of commenting on Christ and not himself, of breaking the bread and shedding the wine as a sign of his own service to the people in Christ’s name. There it becomes eloquent that a priest lives at the service of the community and not the community at his service. This guarantees his poverty in spirit.

The Eucharist is the event where resurrection and cross, giving himself and forgiving join together in a forceful, credible sign of redemption. There he creates community. There he explains the Gospel way of life. There he invites for service or diakonia. There, as for Don Bosco, he finds and communicates the joy which allows him to live a life totally dedicated, giving an understanding of the choice he made to live a celibate life, and to live in a community of brothers—Salesians together. There he blesses, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the community and the world as a true missionary of Christ.

Here we need a word about the Holy Spirit. Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit. All her life she witnessed as a contemplative of God living in her. She was there a “specialist in the matter” when the Spirit came over the apostles in the Cenacle, the same place where they had the Last Supper with Jesus. That Spirit of God took away all fear from the disciples; doors and windows opened, and they went into the squares and the streets to tell anybody their experience with Jesus, in particular that they had eaten with him.

Dear priests, dear Christians, God shares his meal, his body and blood, with us. The one who eats his body and drinks his blood will saved. To this end he gave us the priest, to be able to participate in the banquet. But first, before joining in this divine meal, we ought to recognize our smallness, profess our faith, and proclaim our readiness to live according to what Christ taught us.

When the disciples asked him what they had to do, he simply said, “Believe in the one the Father has sent.” And when he met the children, he gave us the key to the Preventive System. Three words, three verbs, he gave us synthesizing what Don Bosco elaborated. He embraced the children as a sign of his love; he put his hand on their heads as a sign of protection and encouragement; and he blessed them as a sign that he would never leave them alone, but remain with them, with us, to the end of time (Mark 10:16).

Frs. Matt DeGance and Mike Leschinsky Ordained

Fathers Matt De Gance
and Mike Leschinsky Ordained Fr. Matthew DeGance and Fr. Michael Leschinsky were ordained priests on July 2 in Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange, N.J. Bishop Luc Van Looy, SDB, of Ghent, Belgium, presided over the Mass and carried out the ordination. He was joined by Bishop Dominic Marconi, auxiliary bishop emeritus of the Newark Archdiocese, 43 concelebrating priests, and 2 deacons.

In his homily Bishop Van Looy called Frs. Matt and Mike to be teachers through their loving witness to Jesus, to be poor and ready to go where they can serve Jesus, and to center their lives on the Eucharist.

Both newly ordained confreres did their novitiate year at Mary Help of Christians Parish on East 12th Street in 2000-2001 and made their first profession there on August 16, 2001.
At the beginning of the rite, the 2 men's parents bless them before sending them to answer the Church's call to ordination.

Fr. Matt DeGance, 34 years old, is the son of Joseph and Jacqueline DeGance. He’s a native of Fort Lauderdale and graduated from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville with a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy. He began working as a therapist after graduation.

The DeGance family’s friendship with several Salesians, particularly Frs. Peter Lappin and August Bosio, nurtured in Matt a love for Don Bosco and a vocational seed—the seed already having been planted in his family. In 1999 he enter the formation program at Orange.

With a sacramental gesture going back to the apostles, Bishop Luc imposes hands on the head of Deacon Matt DeGance in silence.

After some years of postnovitiate formation at Orange, Bro. Matt was assigned to Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey from 2005 to 2007. He taught biology and theology, directed an intramural sports program, was an assistant coach of varsity, JV, and freshman volleyball, and contributed to the school’s campus ministry program.

From the fall of 2007 until June 2011 Bro. Matt studied theology at Sts. Peter and Paul Salesian Theological School in Jerusalem, also called the Ratisbonne Monastery, which is affiliated with the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome. He took full advantage of his closeness to the biblical holy places and the opportunity to connect the Scriptures with his daily life experience. He enjoyed the international flavor of the school, which draws students and faculty from more than 20 countries. He was also a talented tour guide for Salesians visiting from other parts of the world. During his theological studies he engaged in such pastoral work as adult catechesis, days of recollection, liturgical assistance, and youth ministry.

All the concelebrating priests join Bishop Luc in the consecratory prayer which, following the imposition of hands, makes the 2 men presbyters ("priests").

Fr. Matt finds that being a consecrated Salesian is “a great gift” from God, one that he would encourage any young person to accept without fear. The Salesian vocation is rich in peace and in the happiness of doing God’s will, and Fr. Matt cannot think of any spirituality that is more attractive than Don Bosco’s.

He will offer a Mass of thanksgiving at his home parish of Saint John the Baptist in Fort Lauderdale on July 10.

Fr. Matt’s first assignment as a priest will be as a teacher at Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, La.

The hands of each of the newly ordained priests are anointed with sacred chrism--Fr. Leschinsky in this photo.

Fr. Mike Leschinsky, 35, the son of Thomas and Ann Leschinsky, was born in Youngstown, Ohio. While attending Bowling Green State University, earning a degree in secondary English education, he felt a call to the religious life. Wanting to work with young people, he looked into the Salesians and discovered what he calls “an authentic spiritual family.” He spent several summers working at Camp Don Bosco, getting to know Don Bosco and his educational methods and Salesian devotion to Mary Help of Christians. He entered the Salesian formation community in Orange in 1999.

After two further years of postnovitiate formation at Orange, Bro. Mike carried out two years of practical training at Salesian High School in New Rochelle (2003-2005). He also did some ministry at the Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw.

For the 1st time, Frs. Matt (left) and Mike concelebrate Mass. Bishop Marconi is between Bishop Luc and Fr. Mike.

Bro. Mike did one year of his theological studies at the Salesian Theological School in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, and the other three years at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange, N.J. He earned a master of divinity degree in 2011.

Fr. Mike says he wants to seek God while living and praying in community, serving the young in the spirit of Don Bosco, and striving to do good together with many other apostolic people. He will be doing just that as he begins his new apostolic work at Salesian High School in New Rochelle this fall.

Fr. Mike will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving at his home parish of St. Matthias in Youngstown on July 10.

Most of the concelebrants posed after Mass with Bishop Luc, Fr. Matt, and Fr. Mike

Many more photos of the ordination Mass and the reception may be viewed at http://ordinationoffrsdeganceleschinsky.shutterfly.com/

Why Those Two Words Matter

Why Those Two Words Matter
"under God"

In a blog posting, Fr. Robert Barron from Chicago notes:

"One wonders whom the producers of the U.S. Open broadcast were trying to impress or not to offend when they excised the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Of course, by not offending, they managed to do violence to the words of the pledge.
. . . .

"And though it might not be immediately apparent, this is no small thing. The claim that we are a nation 'under God' is an affirmation that we stand opposed to tyrannies of all stripes. What creates a tyrant is the assumption that he and his policies are beyond criticism, because his will is the criterion of truth."

You can read the whole post at http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2011/06/us-should-be-nation-under-god-that-keeps-the-sabbath.html

Homily for Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Homily for the Solemnity
of Corpus Christi
May 28, 1978
Deut. 8: 2-3, 14-16
Salesian Center, Columbus

This year (2011), Corpus Christi fell on June 26; from June 21 to 25 I was en route to and from, or taking part in, the Catholic Media Conference in Pittsburgh. Thus I didn't have a chance to write out a homily, and on the 26th I preached to the Ursulines from an 8-word outline--at my usual length! In lieu of that nugget, here's a homily from 9 days after my presbyteral ordination.

The 1st or 2d time I braved the Mt. Carmel East emergency room by myself,* an elderly man was ambulanced in with massive heart failure. His wife, son, daughter-in-law, and grand-daughter came in to wait it out, and there I was, trying to be of use, of help, of something, in a tiny private room with them. How do we minister to people in basic human situations? in extreme human situations?

To care, and to show we care, we must enter into the situation ourselves. We must somehow participate in the experience, become present, and become vulnerable. We simply cannot remain spectators.

In the situation I cited, the case was extreme. Fortunately for all of us, at least as far as I was concerned, one of the Holy Cross sisters joined us, and when the bad news came after about 15 minutes, the doctor, too, was most compassionate. Together, we all of us experienced this man’s death in some way, and sister’s experience, mine, and the doctor’s were instruments for Christ’s care toward these stricken people.

In such situations, words may help; but generally they don’t. Only a shared presence is of value.

Human misery and death are certainly an extreme condition of our race. But they aren’t the worst extreme. There is sin. There is alienation from God and one another. These hurt us mortally. These tear us apart more than physical death.

And we are fortunate to have the pastoral presence of the Lord God. He calls us to himself, to follow him thru the desert wasteland to fellowship with him to a land of milk and honey. He bestows his gifts on us to sustain us in the desert of our extreme human situation.

But his words spoken thru Moses, his manna given from the sky, aren’t enuf to keep us with him and to heal our situation. We insist on going our own way and staying lost in the desert wastes of sin and alienation. What more can he do for us, then?

“Man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3). The spoken word isn’t concrete enuf for us, so God has outdone himself and given us a Word enfleshed. The presence of Jesus is as pastoral and compassionate a presence to the misery and alienation of our human condition as God can devise. He has participated in our whole situation; he has become vulnerable, just like us. God truly cares—not just with manna that feeds us for a day but doesn’t prevent death or alienation or infidelity—but with the Word of life, the Word really present among men.

“Man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Out of God’s mouth proceeds also the Breath, the Spirit, who vivifies and sanctifies us in the corporeal absence of Jesus. This is the same Spirit who overshadowed Mary and enabled the Word to become flesh.

But the compassion and the concern of our God for our frailty, our pain, our wounds, goes still further! Jesus the Word of life is still with us bodily, in the Bread of life, again made flesh by the overshadowing of the Spirit.
Bread…bread and wine! Not caviar and martinis, not any exotic or expensive food, but abundant, common, universal bread and wine—the food for all mankind, just as God’s compassion is universally present to us. In his com-passion, he has truly suffered with us. And now…now, he invites us to be compassionate with him. He is present to us to be eaten as food. We are present to him to become part of his body given up for the human race. His Bread is a promise to us of salvation, of eternal life. Our eating his Bread is a promise to him that we share his com-passion for his whole Body, for all men. In this food, more than any other, do we become what we eat.

What a gift, what a presence, we have received! After that fatherless family left Mt. Carmel, our only presence to each other has been in thought. But God’s Word among us not only gives life but asks us to be taken up, given up with him so that we who receive might also give. Truly, we abide in him and he in us (cf. John 6:56).

* Note for blog readers: this was during my clinical pastoral education as a student of theology; I think it was after my ordination to the diaconate in the fall of 1977.

Homily for Trinity Sunday

Homily for Trinity Sunday

June 19, 2011

2 Cor 13: 11-13
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Cor 13: 11).

Our 2d Scripture passage this morning is the conclusion of St. Paul’s 2d Letter to the Corinthians—the last verse of which, a blessing, you’ve often heard as the priest’s greeting at the beginning of Mass, as you did today.

Corinth is located at the head of a deep bay in southern Greece, on the neck of the isthmus between the northern mainland of the country and the large southern peninsula. So it was an important seaport and a crossroads—a very important commercial, social, and religious center.

The Christians of Corinth were ordinary people like us, except that most of them were converts to Christianity—from decadent pagan lives or, in some cases, from devoutly Jewish lives—whereas most of us were raised as followers of Jesus from birth; and the Corinthians lived in a very pagan, very immoral world renowned for its corruption—the Times Square, the Las Vegas, the Amsterdam of the Roman Empire—whereas our society and our culture shows much evidence of Judeo-Christian influences despite some strong currents of modern paganism.

Paul’s letters to these early Christians deal with a lot of problems, with doctrinal questions, with conflicts, with bad behavior. So we hear him commanding them to “mend their ways.”

Then he tells them, specifically, to encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace. This is the opposite of what so many of them have been doing. (Just read the 2 letters to the Corinthians in your New Testament.) It’s the opposite of what Paul prays that these friends of his will experience: God’s love, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, grace from Jesus Christ.

Thru the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God calls us into fellowship, into communion, with himself and with one another. He doesn’t call us to fault-finding, to arguments, to ego trips, to lies about one another, to exploiting one another. He doesn’t call us to indifference toward one another. God, after all, hasn’t been indifferent toward us, even tho we’re sinners—pretty ugly people sometimes (and I don’t mean ugly in a physical sense, like when you 1st get to the mirror in the morning). Indeed, what does St. John tell us about God today? That he “so loved the world”—which means us sinful people—“that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (3:16). God wants to save us! God loves us!

That’s why Paul can urge even the Corinthians (with all their faults and sins) to rejoice—to rejoice in God’s love, in the fellowship they share with God thru Jesus, thru the power of the Holy Spirit to help them change their sinful behavior, to mend their ways. God's word urges us today to rejoice for the same reason, in the same communion with God.

“Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you” (13:12). So Paul signs off just before blessing his friends and disciples in Corinth.

“All the holy ones,” which most English versions translate as “All the saints,” refers to the Christians who are with Paul where he’s writing from; that appears to be Macedonia—perhaps Philippi or Thessalonica, where Paul had planted the faith before he reached Corinth. Every faithful flower of Jesus is a “holy one” or a “saint,” someone made holy by “the grace of Jesus Christ, God’s love, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.” In fact, when he greeted the faithful of Corinth in the 1st verse of this letter, he greeted them, too, as “saints” or “holy ones.”

You and I, dear sisters and brothers, are God’s holy people. Yes, we’re sinners. But God’s grace comes to us in Jesus; the fellowship of the Holy Spirit cleanses our sins and draws us into communion with God! It’s God’s holiness, not our own, that we acknowledge—and that we strive to live up to.

In all cultures, including those of the ancient Near East, a kiss symbolizes affection, respect, and friendship between family members, friends, or members of the same group. People greet each other or say farewell with a kiss. In the liturgy we kiss sacred objects such as the altar, the book of the Gospels, relics—and in some rites, tho not the Roman Rite that we follow—we kiss our fellow worshipers at the sign of peace. In fact, those of you old enuf to remember the pre-Vatican II rite of Confirmation will remember that the bishop used to slap the one he’d just confirmed—a light slap, of course—which the sisters explained was a sign that we had to be ready to suffer as soldiers of Christ in battles against the evil in the world. In truth, tho, that “slap” was the feeble remnant of a kiss; it was a love tap such as you might give your child; it was a sign of peace—exactly what has replaced it in the post-Vatican II Confirmation rite, in which the bishop expressly wishes peace to the person he’s just confirmed.

Paul urges the Corinthians to “greet one another with a holy kiss.” There are in the Bible insincere kisses; the most notorious example is Judas’s kissing of Jesus as he betrays him. So a holy kiss in the Christian community, or any sign of peace and reconciliation and friendship, must 1st of all be sincere. Then, we all know that kisses are exchanged between lovers. These also can be signs of the deepest affection and commitment toward each other. Unfortunately, they can also be exploitative, like so much of the sexual expression in our culture (not that our culture is unique in that regard, not at all). A holy kiss, then, like any exchange between persons, is one that regards and respects the other person, not one that is self-gratifying, one that seeks to use another person for one’s own pleasure. Paul is urging the Christians of Corinth to be in peace and harmony with each other, and to treat one another with complete respect—ultimately, to treat one another as God’s holy people, people who belong to the Lord Jesus because the Holy Spirit dwells in them, people belonging intimately to the Father.

Homily for Solemnity of Pentecost

Homily for the
Solemnity of PentecostJune 12, 2011
Psalm 104: 1,24,29-31,34
John 20: 19-23
Sequence
1 Cor 12: 3-7, 12-13
Ursulines, Willow Dr., N.R.

“When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104: 30).


"Jesus has poured this Spirit you see and hear": mosaic in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.

The 1st 2 verses of the Bible speak of God’s creating the heavens and the earth “in the beginning,” and of a divine wind—or the spirit of God—sweeping over primordial waters as part of that creative process. I’m no paleontologist, but those who study the beginnings of life on our planet tell us, as I understand it, that all life forms emerged from the sea. The so-called Priestly Source of this section of Genesis had no idea how uncanny his description has turned out to be!

The point of the story, of course, is that God has given all order and all life and all goodness to the universe. God has literally “inspired” creation. God’s plan from “the beginning” was that all of creation should be alive and thrive in an orderly relationship with him. Again, the Psalmist picks up on that theme: “How manifold are your works, O Lord! The earth is full of your creatures” (104:24). St. Irenaeus gives us the patristic insight: “The glory of God is man fully alive.”

The sin of the 1st human beings introduced disorder and death in God’s universe, listening not to the divine Spirit but to the evil spirit: Sine tuo numine, nihil est in homine, nihil est innoxium, very freely rendered, “Where you are not, we have naught: Nothing good in deed or thought, Nothing free from taint of ill.”

So we may rightly claim that the divine Spirit intervened to restore God’s will for the universe: Mary conceived of the Holy Spirit, and the Word was made flesh. The 1st word spoken by the Word after his resurrection is “Shalom!” Peace be with you! The word of life is a word of peace, and that peace follows from the reconciliation between God and sinners: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them” (John 20:23). The Spirit is life-giving, for it’s God’s most ardent desire that we be fully alive. “May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord be glad in his works!” (Ps 104:31). “The glory of God is man fully alive.”

As you know, water that just sits becomes stagnant, repulsive, dead. God’s Spirit isn’t stagnant. Jesus uses the image of flowing water to refer to the Spirit, especially in John’s Gospel: we must be born again of water and the Spirit (3:5); Jesus offers the Samaritan woman the gift of living water, flowing water (4:10); from whoever believes in Jesus will flow “rivers of living water” (7:38-39); from the pierced side of Jesus flow blood and water (19:34). So those who are filled with the Spirit, those who are fully alive in Christ, act accordingly. They flow, they move, they generate life. On the day of Pentecost, “they all began to speak in different tongues” (2:4) and then went out and preached Jesus Christ. Likewise, Paul says that to be able to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” is a gift of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:3), and the Spirit gives a great variety of gifts to the disciples of Jesus “for some benefit” (12:7).

The Cascade of Slid, a stretch of Pine Meadow Brook in Harriman State Park, New York

God’s dynamic Spirit impels believers to act on what they believe, in “different forms of service,” in “different workings” for the glory of God and the spread of the Good News that “Jesus is Lord,” for the reconciliation of sinners with God, for the restoration of goodness and order in the created universe. Lava quod est sordidum, riga quod est aridum, sana quod est saucium. Da virtutis meritum, da salutis exitum, da perenne gaudium: “Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour thy dew; Wash the stains of guilt away. Give us virtue’s sure reward; Give us your salvation, Lord; Give us joys that never end.”

Sisters, you are sent by the Risen Jesus to preach that Good News, to work with the Spirit of God to effect peace and reconciliation. The different spiritual gifts you have received—of virtue, of teaching, of prayer, of leadership, of wisdom, of discernment, of inner healing, etc.—bring them to your community; bring them to the people of God “for some benefit,” for building up the body of Christ. Fill the earth with the glory of God!

Rector Major Announces Strenna for 2012

Rector Major Announces
Strenna (Theme) for 2012 A few days ago Fr. Pascual Chavez, the SDBs' Rector Major, announced the annual strenna or theme for the Salesian Family for next year. It's the 1st of 3 that will point the Salesians toward the bicentennial of St. John Bosco's birth in 2015.

Here's the announcement from ANS, and following that you'll find the complete text of the RM's presentation of the strenna.

Strenna 2012: Coming to know Don Bosco in order to be faithful to him

(Rome) – As expected, the first of the Rector Major’s actions at the opening of the summer plenary session of the general council was to present the members with the theme for the 2012 Strenna; it is in line with preparations for celebrating the bicentennial of Don Bosco’s birth.

“Let us make the young our life’s mission by coming to know and imitate Don Bosco” is how Strenna 2012 reads. With it comes a quote from John’s Gospel (10:11) offering a biblical point of view: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”

“We need to study [Don Bosco], and through the events of his life we must come to know him as an educator and pastor, a founder, guide, legislator,” Fr. Chavez states in the introduction to his brief presentation. In 2012, members of the Salesian Family will be called to discover and get to know the many-faceted figure of this saintly man from Turin.

Historical awareness is not just about archeology, but needs to take present times into consideration: ”The image we conjure up about Don Bosco and his activity needs serious reconstruction, beginning from our cultural horizons: the complexity of life today, globalization, difficulties in the apostolate, decrease in vocations, the ‘questioning’ of consecrated life.”

To be faithful to Don Bosco means renewing our life’s purpose, the purpose for which he gave himself “until his dying breath”: the salvation of the young, who, as the Rector Major reminds us, we encounter amid their various difficult circumstances: “poverty, child labor, sexual exploitation, lack of education and vocational training, finding work, lack of self-confidence, fear of the future, loss of the meaning of life.” It is also a case of looking at digital natives: “looking for experiences of social mobility, possibilities for intellectual development, aspects of economic progress, forms of instant communication, opportunity to be pro-active, through new technologies … here too we want to share their life and interests.”

An awareness of Don Bosco’s story has to begin with certain reference points: pastoral charity; the hardship, suffering, and many sacrifices which Don Bosco made; the ultimate purpose of the Salesian Family – to be apostles of the young, in ordinary settings as well as in poor and mission areas.

The presentation already gives an indication of tasks that will flow from Strenna 2012: being with the young in places, circumstances, and frontiers where they expect Salesian Family members also to be; an awareness of the responses that Don Bosco gave to young people’s needs: rediscovering the Memoirs of the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales, written by Don Bosco at the explicit request of Pope Pius IX, and known as the “memories of the future.” “So during this year [2012] let us be involved in getting to know this text, communicating its contents, disseminating it, and especially putting it into the hands of the young: it will also become an inspirational book for their vocational choice.”

Note that the Memoirs of the Oratory is available in English translation from Salesian Publishers. Call 201-986-0503, or write to srmdist@verizon.net

Here's the RM's presentation of the strenna:

STRENNA 2012 - PRESENTATION

“I am the good shepherd:

The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep” (John 10:11)

Let us make the young our life’s mission

by coming to know and imitate Don Bosco

Year one of the three-year preparation period for the bicentennial of the Don Bosco’s birth focuses on our getting to know his story. We need to study him and, through the events of his life, we need to come to know him as an educator and pastor, founder, guide, legislator. It is an awareness that leads to love and imitation. This is the theme of Strenna 2012.

For us members of the Salesian Family, who turn to Don Bosco as our reference point, he needs to be what St. Francis of Assisi has been and continues to be for the Franciscans and St. Ignatius of Loyola for the Jesuits, i.e., the founder, spiritual master, model of education, and especially initiator of a movement of worldwide importance, someone who was able formidably to bring young people’s needs, circumstances, and future to the attention of the Church and society. But how can we do this without turning to history, which is not the custodian of a lost past, but a living memory within us which challenges us in terms of relevance?

Our approach to Don Bosco, done with appropriate methods of historical research, has led us to understand and assess better his human and Christian greatness, his practical brilliance, his skills as an educator, his spirituality, his work, fully understood only if deeply rooted in the history of the society in which he lived. At the same time through a knowledge of his journey through history we have always been aware of God’s providential intervention in his life. In this historical study there is no a priori rejection of the valid and respectable image that generations of the Salesians, Salesian Sisters, Salesian Cooperators, and members of the Salesian Family have had of the Don Bosco they knew and loved, but there is and must be a presentation and reworking of an image of Don Bosco for today, one that can speak to today’s world, makes use of a renewed language.

The image of Don Bosco and his activity should be seriously reconstructed, beginning from our cultural horizons: the complexity of life today, globalization, and the difficulties of the apostolate, the decline in vocations, the “questioning” of consecrated life. Radical, or epochal, changes, as my predecessor Fr. Egidio Viganò called them, force us to rethink and revise the image in another light, in view of a fidelity that is not mere repetition of formulas or formal allegiance to tradition.

The historical significance of Don Bosco also has to be rediscovered, beyond his “works” and certain relatively original pedagogical elements, especially in his practical and affective perception of the universal, theological, and social problem of “neglected” youth, and his great ability to communicate this to large crowds of co-workers, benefactors, and admirers.

Let us ask ourselves: Are we faithful followers of Don Bosco today? Do we still experience the tension that he experienced between the ideal and its realization, between intuition and its embodiment in the social fabric in which he operated?

To be faithful to Don Bosco means knowing his history and the history of his times, making his inspiration our own, taking up his motivations and choices.
To be faithful to Don Bosco and his mission is to cultivate in ourselves a strong and abiding love for young people, especially the poorest.

This love leads us to respond to their most pressing and deepest needs. Like Don Bosco, we feel touched by their difficult situations: poverty, child labor, sexual exploitation, lack of education and vocational training, integration into the world of work, lack of self-confidence, fear of the future, loss of meaning in life.

We try to be with them, in affection and through selfless love, holding sway discretely, offering sound proposals for them to follow as they make their choices in life and experience happiness and seek their future. In everything, we become their companions on the journey and competent guides.

In particular, referring to the youth of today, we seek to understand their new way of being. Many of them are “digital natives” looking for experiences of social mobility, the possibility of intellectual development, elements of economic progress, forms of instant communication, opportunities to be pro-active via new technologies. Here too we want to share their lives and their interests. Guided by the creative spirit of Don Bosco, as educators and “digital immigrants” we stay close to them, trying to help them overcome the generation gap with their parents or the adult world.

We take care of them throughout their journey of growth and as they mature, giving them our time and our energy and staying with them as they grow through childhood to become young adults.

We take care of them when difficult situations like war, hunger, and lack of future opportunities lead them to abandon home and family and face life alone.

We take care of them when they are looking out anxiously for their first job and setting about fitting into society, sometimes without any hope or prospect of success.

We take care of them when they are building up their world of affection, their family, accompanying them especially when they become engaged and in the early years of their marriage (see GC26, nn. 98, 99, 104).

We are particularly keen to fill the deepest void of their hearts, helping them seek meaning in their lives and above all offering a way for growth in knowledge and friendship with the Lord Jesus, in the experience of a living Church, in real commitment to experiencing their lives as vocation.

Beginning from our knowledge of the history of Don Bosco, our major points of reference and our tasks stemming from Strenna 2012 are as follows.

1. Pastoral charity characterizes Don Bosco’s entire story and is what animates his many works. We could say that it is the concise historical perspective through which to read his entire existence. The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and calls them by name; he quenches their thirst with clear water and allows them to graze in green pastures; he becomes the gate through which the sheep enter the sheepfold; and he gives his own life so that the sheep may have life in abundance. The greatest power of Don Bosco’s charism is the love drawn directly from the Lord Jesus, imitating him and remaining in Him. This love consists in giving everything. From this stems his apostolic vow: “I have promised God to spend myself until my dying breath for my poor youngsters.” This is our brand and our credibility with the young!

2. In Don Bosco’s story we come to know of much hardship, privation, suffering, and of the many sacrifices he made. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Through the needs and requests of young people, God is asking each member of the Salesian Family to sacrifice him- or herself for them. Living the mission is therefore not a vain activity for activity’s sake, but rather conforming our hearts to the heart of the Good Shepherd who does not want any of his sheep to be lost. It is a deeply human and deeply spiritual mission. It is a path of asceticism, for there is no animating presence among young people without asceticism and sacrifice. Losing something, or rather, losing everything to enrich the lives of our young people is what supports our dedication and our commitment.

3. Through the minutes of the founding of the Salesian Congregation, and especially through historical development of the multifaceted work of Don Bosco, we can get to know the purpose of the Salesian Family, as this purpose was detailed little by little. We are called to be apostles of the young, of popular settings, of poor and mission areas. Today more than ever we commit ourselves to a critical understanding of media culture, and we use the media, in particular new technologies, as potential multipliers of our activity in being close to and supportive of young people. While we are in their midst as educators, we involve them as our first collaborators, as did our Father, and we give them responsibility, help them to take initiative, enable them to be apostles of their peers. In this way we can extend the great heart of Don Bosco; he wanted to reach and serve young people throughout the world.

4. Our good intentions cannot remain empty declarations. Like Don Bosco, God waits for us in today’s youth! We therefore need to meet them and stay with them in the places, circumstances, and frontiers where they await us. This is why we need to go out to meet them, take the first step, walk with them. It is heartening to see how the Salesian Family throughout the world is doing its best for the poorest young people: street children, excluded children, young workers, young soldiers, young apprentices, neglected orphans, exploited children, but a heart that loves is always a heart that asks itself certain questions. Even today, or perhaps today more than ever, Don Bosco asks questions. By getting to know his story, we must listen to the questions Don Bosco addresses to us. What more can we do for poor young people? What are the new frontiers of the region where we work, of the country where we live? Have we the ears to hear the cries of young people today? Besides the above-mentioned poverty, how many other kinds of poverty weigh on today’s young people as they struggle on their way? What are the new frontiers we must get involved in today? Think about the reality of the family, the educational emergency, the confusion in affective and sexual education, lack of social and political involvement, the ebbing tide of privacy of personal life, spiritual weakness, the misery of so many young people. We hear the cry of young people and offer answers to their deepest, most pressing needs, their practical and spiritual needs.

5. From his personal life’s experience we can know the responses Don Bosco gave to the needs of young people. In this way we can better consider the responses that we have already put in place and what others still need to be created. Of course there are difficulties. We have to deal with the wolves who want to devour the flock: indifference, ethical relativism, the consumerism that destroys the value of things and experiences, false ideologies. God is calling us and Don Bosco encourages us to be good shepherds in the image of the Good Shepherd, so that young people will still find fathers, mothers, friends, and above all can find Life. Moreover, true Life, the abundant life offered by Jesus!

6. The Memoirs of the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales, written by Don Bosco at the explicit request of Pope Pius IX, are a point of reference for coming to know Don Bosco’s spiritual and pastoral journey. They are written so that we might come to know the prodigious beginnings of the vocation and work of Don Bosco, but especially so that taking up Don Bosco’s motivations and choices, we as individuals, and as each group of the Salesian Family, might follow the same spiritual and apostolic journey. They were regarded as “memories of the future.” So in the course of this year let us commit ourselves to getting to know this text, communicating its contents, disseminating it, and especially putting it into the hands of young people: it will become an inspirational book for their vocational choices.

Fr. Pascual Chavez V., SDB
Rector Major

DB Cristo Rey HS Celebrates 1st Commencement

Don Bosco Cristo Rey HS
Celebrates 1st Commencement

Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Md., celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2011 on the afternoon of June 2 at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the nation’s capital. This was the first commencement for the school, which opened in August 2007.

DBCR is co-sponsored by the archdiocese of Washington and the Salesians of Don Bosco and has enjoyed tremendous support from both as well as from the business, educational, and service communities of the Washington area.Hundreds of family members, members of the school’s board of directors, corporate sponsors, friends of the school and of the students, and journalists joined the happy graduates in the great national basilica.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, presided over the commencement exercises and gave the principal address to the graduates. Cardinal McCarrick first invited the Salesians to accept a parish in the archdiocese (Nativity, in Washington) and then initiated the process of founding the school together with the Salesians. His successor, now-Cardinal Donald Wuerl, followed up on the initiative and presided over the school’s opening, its expansion, and its first baccalaureate Mass.
The Class of 2011 numbers 70 students. All come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, all are members of minority groups, and many of their families are immigrants. But all have worked hard at their academics and at Cristo Rey’s unique corporate work study program, and all have been accepted into college. Many if not most of them will be the first in their families to advance to higher education. Some will go to small schools or community colleges, but others have been accepted into such prestigious universities as Georgetown, Catholic, Penn State, St. John’s, and Syracuse.

The faculty led the senior class into the basilica, to the tune of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance.” The administration and principal guests—Cardinal McCarrick and Fr. Thomas Dunne, Salesian provincial—followed the seniors. Fr. Dunne offered an invocation. Fr. Steve Shafran, president of DBCR, welcomed everyone. He acknowledged the students’ hard work and the great love that the faculty has lavished on the students so that all of them together could accomplish their dreams. The students acknowledged their teachers with a rousing round of applause.

Jenifer Moreno was the salutatorian. She was described as someone who embodies the teaching of St. Francis to preach the Gospel always, using words if necessary. She is going to attend the University of West Virginia with the intention of becoming a transplant surgeon. She spoke of her class’s pride in what they’ve accomplished, of their gratitude toward all who have encouraged them, especially their parents, and of the sense of responsibility that they bear to carry on what they’ve begun.

Valedictorian Catherine Rubio was noted as a student always ready to help others and one who balanced very well the demands of school, work, and family. She’ll attend Georgetown, aiming to become a radiologist. In her speech, she pointed out how the school plant had grown during their four years, the student body had grown, and this class had matured. She said that the seniors, observing their teachers’ dedication, had responded by studying hard. She cited the school’s slogan of “faith, family, future, and fun” and showed how those were embodied in the relationship with God they had developed, in the school’s family atmosphere, in the futures opening before the graduates, and in numerous school activities (including an occasion when students got to “pie” some of their teachers).

Cardinal McCarrick congratulates valedictorian Catherine Rubio

Cardinal McCarrick noted with appreciation how both senior speakers had thanked their benefactors. He recounted how the school was founded and credited the Salesians with providing their best men for the school; the cardinal almost canonized Fr. Steve Shafran. He credited Cardinal Wuerl as an outstanding educator who “grabbed” the Cristo Rey idea and got it implemented, especially by calling upon the “magic” of Msgr. John Enzler, the archdiocese’s vicar of development. He credited the business community for partnering so well with DBCR. And he commended the senior class for rising to the occasion and making their dreams happen, and their parents for standing behind their sons and daughters.

Then the cardinal got down to his real message. He implored the graduates-to-be to show their appreciation for all the blessings that God has given them by sharing those blessings with others who are needy and need help, as they have received help in their own need. He cited the book of Proverbs: “Better a dish of herbs where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it” (15:17). The seniors, he said, have learned the difference that love makes—in their school, in their workplaces, and in life. “Let there be love in your life,” he urged.

The graduating seniors process as their names are called, to receive their diplomas from Cardinal McCarrick, and then DBCR president Fr. Steve Shafran flips the tassels on their mortarboards.

Following the conferral of diplomas, Alicia Bondanella, director of DBCR’s corporate work study program, addressed the graduates and the guests. She observed that the seniors had raised $2,000,000 for the school through the work they did for their corporate employers. She told the graduates that they’d done outstanding jobs, had learned skills, and had built relationships. Since they had already proven themselves successful, their success would continue.

Fr. John Serio, DBCR’s principal, was the final speaker on the program. He echoed Cardinal McCarrick’s appeal that the graduates should pay attention to the world and to the people around them, set examples of a high standard of excellence, and help other people. Telling them that they, as the founding class of DBCR, were leaving a legacy at the school but weren’t leaving the school, he invited them to remain helpfully present to the classes behind them.

The commencement rites concluded with the presentation of seven awards. Five graduates were the first to receive the Don Bosco Award, which “captures the heart of Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School” and recognizes the honorees’ character, service, and leadership in the fields of academics, corporate work, and extracurricular activities. Each was presented with a small statue of Don Bosco and two students.

A sixth student, Julio Hernandez, was recognized as the Outstanding Graduate, “demonstrating superior qualities and virtue in all aspects of student life…the individual we desire other students to emulate.” Julio received a plaque from Cardinal McCarrick.














Finally, the cardinal himself was given the Don Bosco Award in recognition of his contributions to education, to ecumenism, and to assisting the world’s poorest people.

The faculty and administration processed into the center aisle of the basilica, and then the graduates filed down the aisle, thanking their teacher-friends one by one on their way to the church’s main door, where their proud parents and families waited in warm sunshine to congratulate them.

Homily for 7th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
7th Sunday of EasterJune 5, 2011
1 Pet 4: 13-16
Acts 1: 12-14
Christian Brothers, Iona College, N.R.

“Beloved: Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you also may rejoice exultantly” (1 Pet 4: 13).

The last time I was here, Dennis Wright asked me in jest why a good guy like Frank Wolfram has to suffer surgery and hospitalization, while a devil like me has it so easy.

I dare say very few of us are ready to rejoice in our sufferings. But, as the 1st Letter of St. Peter demonstrates, it’s an ancient Christian theme. St. Francis of Assisi also teaches that to accept being maltreated in various forms is “perfect joy” for the true disciple of Jesus.

As we all know very well, better than we’d like to, suffering is an inevitable part of life. We all have our personal sufferings of body and spirit; I don’t need to give you examples. We all have relatives and friends who suffer illness and injury, which causes us to suffer along with them. Every week seems to bring us news of another natural disaster somewhere: flood, famine, epidemic, tornado, earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, wildfire. Every day there’s news of violence inflicted upon innocents, intentionally or accidentally, in our streets, on our highways, at sea, in the air—not to mention the sufferings of war.

As Christians we believe that God’s Son became a human being like us in order to identify with our condition in every manner except sin. Our 4th Eucharistic Prayer professes to us that God sent his son to be our Savior, “born of the Virgin Mary, a man like us in all things but sin.” Part of that likeness involved serious suffering, horrible death. Without suffering and death, he wouldn’t be like us, wouldn’t be one of us. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “Because he himself was tested thru what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (2:18). Because of his humanity, in some manner he continues to suffer with suffering humanity.

Beyond suffering and death, God’s Son found resurrection and eternal glory—the reward for his perseverance and fidelity. The Son’s identification with our humanity is aimed at elevating us to his own perfection and happiness—to glory. When suffering comes to us, and when we can’t shake it off despite medicine or other recourse, we have the option of reciprocating with the Son, i.e., of identifying our suffering with his. I’m sure Frank Wolfram’s doing that, and your brothers over at St. Joseph’s. In one of his more enigmatic statements, St. Paul says that he rejoices in his own sufferings for the sake of his friends and disciples, and in his own flesh he is “filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the Church” (Col 1:24). (As it happens, that verse is alluded to in the little prayer after the 2d psalm at tonite’s Evening Prayer.*) Somehow, Paul so identifies himself with Christ that his sufferings become Christ’s sufferings and have some kind of a redemptive value from their union with the Lord Jesus.

Peter, here, assures us that our own fidelity thru our sufferings will have the same outcome as Christ’s sufferings did: those who share in Christ’s sufferings will also share in his glory when he reveals himself on the last day, when he raises our long-dead bodies from the grave. Our sufferings remind us of our union with the suffering Christ—and of the eternal life promised to those who are part of him. We remember, as St. Athanasius wrote, “Jesus Christ, rising from the dead, has made man’s life one long festival of joy”—a joy we anticipate even now in this vale of tears.

But how shall we be able to keep all that in mind? Doesn’t suffering—from illness, from pain, from grief, from loss—often shake our faith? Doesn’t it make us doubt God’s goodness, God’s concern for us? Human nature left to itself can’t manage suffering, can’t find any solace in it. The 1st and 3d readings today tell us the only way that we can manage it, find any solace in it, look beyond it with hope. Those readings speak of prayer.

Bereft of Jesus, following his ascension, and at a loss of what to do with their lives and with their memory of Jesus, the Eleven “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14). They turned to the Father seeking guidance, seeking strength, seeking courage, seeking wisdom—all of which the Father would shortly supply them with by sending them the Holy Spirit.

In the gospel reading, Jesus prays for his disciples because the Father has given them to him. They are the Father’s and also Jesus’ (John 17:9-10), so he prays that they—which means all of us—might reach eternal life thru their coming to know Jesus, and thru Jesus, coming to know the Father, “the only true God” (17:3).

So we have the Son praying for us, for our perseverance unto eternal life; and we have the example of the 1st community of disciples gathered in devoted prayer. Only prayer will keep us in the union with Jesus that we need when we’re suffering—not to understand the suffering but to see us thru it, as Jesus (who cried out in agony because his Father seemed so far away from him) kept ultimate faith with his Father in spite of his most unjust, most intense suffering of body and spirit.

A final point: Peter is speaking explicitly not of ordinary human suffering such as you and I must cope with from day to day, but of the suffering that comes from being a Christian, i.e., the suffering of rejection, harassment, and persecution. “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you” (4:14). “Whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name” (4:16). Truly we don’t have to do much of that, not even in our increasingly anti-Christian age. The gibes of the New York Times and the harassment of the ACLU and the sneers of Christopher Hitchens aren’t anything compared with what Nero and Domitian were doing to Christians in the 1st century, what our forebears in the British Isles had to suffer for the Catholic faith, what heroic Christians suffered in the 20th century from Nazis and Communists.

St. Peter crucified (upside down, at his own request because he deemed himself unworthy to die exactly as his Master had)--fresco in the church of Quo Vadis, on the Appian Way in Rome

As we know well, the persecution of Christians is still a daily reality in many places. We must be part of those who “devote themselves with one accord to prayer” in solidarity with them. As part of Jesus’ body, we must pray for those whom the Father has given to Jesus—in China, in Iraq, in Pakistan, in Vietnam, in India, in all the places where the followers of Jesus are suffering today because of his name.

________

* LOH 2:1357.

"Historic" Mass at DBCR

“Historic” Mass at DBCR
“Historic” was the term that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, used to describe Don Bosco Cristo Rey HS’s inaugural baccalaureate Mass on the evening of June 1, 2011.
The cardinal was the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass, celebrated in Our Lady of Sorrows Church adjacent to the Takoma Park, Md., school. The pastor, Fr. Raymond Wadas; the Salesians of the school staff—Frs. Steve Shafran (president), John Serio (principal), and Abe Feliciano (director of faith formation); Fr. George Hanna, director of the Salesian community; and Msgr. John Enzler, vicar of development of the archdiocese, concelebrated. Deacon Bert L’Homme, the archdiocese’s superintendent of Catholic schools, assisted the cardinal. The outstanding Gospel choir from Nativity Parish (the SDB parish in Washington) under the direction of Marvin Ford provided the music.
The church was about three-fourths full with proud parents and families, members of the school’s board of directors, and other friends of the school and the students—and of course the 70 seniors in their caps and gowns and the faculty and staff in their academic regalia.

Just after 7:00 p.m. the graduates-to-be processed in and took their places in the front pews on both sides, followed by the faculty, the concelebrants and liturgical ministers, and the cardinal.

Fr. Steve Shafran, president of DBCR, welcomed Cardinal Wuerl to the rite and thanked him for the support, indeed the partnership, that he has demonstrated toward the school since its beginning.

The cardinal responded by noting the historic nature of the occasion and then called everyone to union with Christ through the Eucharistic celebration.

The cardinal introduced his homily by thanking Fr. Shafran, Fr. Serio, the entire DBCR family, the board of directors, and the present and past superintendents of schools of the archdiocese—three of whom were present. He congratulated the seniors on their accomplishments and pronounced them ready for the next step in their lives.
Cardinal Wuerl expressed his hope that the graduates would take four lessons with them to help them flourish in the future. He also called these lessons “blessings” bestowed upon them by DBCR.

The 1st blessing given them is the opportunity to know Jesus Christ and to recognize the importance of his Gospel in our lives. The Gospel, he said, will help them to know how to answer the great questions of life, how to make the right choices.

The 2d blessing is the excellent academic preparation they have received, a unique preparation for the future. He noted that all of the seniors have been accepted into college or university because of DBCR’s high academic level.

The 3d blessing the cardinal called “a sense of moral judgment” that will help them face all kinds of modern moral issues that the Gospel doesn’t address explicitly; he mentioned several technical matters.
The 4th blessing is based on the dignity and capabilities of each graduate, and that blessing is hope: that they can go confidently into the future and accomplish something.

At the end of Mass, Fr. Shafran addressed everyone, noting the Easter season that we’re in, and reminding the DBCR community that they are called to be a community, like the first disciples, who will show that Jesus is alive; they are men and women of faith poised to become saints.

DBCR’s “plan of life,” demonstrated on four banners at the rear of the sanctuary, is “faith, family, future, and fun.” Fr. Shafran observed how those four elements had been brought to life in the last several days through the school’s first senior prom (fun), the senior-parent dinner the previous evening (family), the commencement exercises scheduled for the following day (future), and of course this baccalaureate Mass (faith).

To be really successful in life, Fr. Shafran concluded, we all have to keep Jesus Christ and his Mother in our lives.

DBCR inaugurated a “Don Bosco Award,” Fr. Shafran and Timothy Flynn, chairman of the board, presented the first award to Cardinal Wuerl in recognition of how he has inspired all levels of educators in the Washington Archdiocese. A statue of Don Bosco with two students, male and female like DBCR’s student body, was given to the cardinal.

Senior Veronica Giron, who as a freshman was the very first student to address a crowed on a special occasion—the school’s opening ceremony in 2007—expressed a few words of gratitude on behalf of her class.

The archdiocese, too, is inaugurating a new award, the Cardinal’s Award. This consists of a plaque and a $1,500 scholarship. It was presented to senior Julio Hernandez.