Homily for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Aug. 21, 2011
Matt 16: 13-20
St. Michael, Greenwich, Conn.

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (Matt 16: 17).

Jesus continues to travel with and instruct his disciples. Today he asks them who people think he is, then what they think. Simon Peter gives the correct answer, but he doesn’t advance to the next round. He has no idea what his answer means, as we’ll hear next week. Being the Messiah puts Jesus’ physical life in jeopardy, and the physical lives of all who follow him. But this is no game; the prize is eternal life.

We don’t know whether Simon Peter is speaking for the 12 or only for himself. What is clear is that he’s speaking under divine inspiration: “You’re blessed, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood hasn’t revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” Probably without his realizing it, Simon has been granted revelation, an insight into divine truth. Jesus isn’t just any human being, not just any prophet. He’s the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One of God; still more, he’s “the Son of the living God” (16:16).

Jesus acknowledges the truth of what’s been revealed to Simon, and he recognizes the blessing that’s been granted to his outspoken disciple. God the Father has singularly chosen Simon, has blessed him with this insight, this revelation.

Not everyone’s favored like Simon. Not everyone’s granted the gift of faith, of knowing who Jesus is, of being chosen to be one of his followers, to encounter “the Son of the living God.”

At this point in the gospel, that faith and that blessing are rather limited. Maybe Simon speaks for all 12 apostles. The blessing is his alone as Jesus speaks it. But it’s no longer his alone. All who today recognize that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, have been favored by revelation from the heavenly Father and are blessed. God has chosen us, as much as he chose Simon Peter, to be blessed with the faith to know Jesus, to follow him, to belong to him, and—as the Gospel promises—to prevail even against death. This is a rare blessing, even today, calling for our gratitude as well as our efforts to be faithful.

How rare is this blessing? Consider that, by a very rough estimate, only 1 person in 6 of the world’s population is Christian in name, and even fewer in practice.

Jesus doesn’t stop with recognizing how his heavenly Father has blessed Simon son of Jonah. He builds upon the Father’s choice. “And so I say to you: you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church” (16:18).

The 1st point in Jesus’ words here is that he gives Peter a new name, a new persona—as Abram became Abraham when he entered a new and special relationship with God (Gen 17:5); as Saul will become Paul when he becomes Christ’s apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 13); as many religious take a new name when they become monks or nuns; as a newly elected Pope takes a new name. Simon son of Jonah’s new identity is “the Rock,” Kephas in Aramaic and Petros in Greek, the sturdy foundation on which Jesus will be able to build his Church, on which the whole community of Jesus’ disciples will rest firmly and securely. The faith that Peter speaks he will share and guarantee for all who follow Jesus.

St. Peter, holding keys, steers his ship, symbol of the Church

(main altar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, N.Y.C.)

The 2d point is that Jesus intends his teaching to last, to be preserved and followed in a permanent community. The word “church,” ekklesia in Matthew’s Greek, means a group of people who’ve been gathered together. Jesus is calling together a great assembly of people whose Rock will be Simon—Simon who’s received divine revelation and given voice to that revelation. This revelation isn’t private but communal. Being a disciple of Jesus is no private affair but a public one.

Nor does Jesus stop there in the charge or mission he gives to Peter: “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against” this community, this church. “Netherworld” is hades in Greek, the world of the dead. In biblical language, it’s where God’s enemies belong; it’s the world of the devil and his allies, malignant spirits and malignant human beings. An alternate English translation is hell.

Jesus is giving a rock-solid assurance that his eventual victory over death—his resurrection—will be shared with the community of his followers, with the faithful members of his Church. No earthly power—and, Lord knows, many have tried, including Roman emperors, Protestant reformers, Japanese shoguns, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, and countless lesser tyrants—no earthly power will subdue or overcome Christ’s Church. Sin cannot defeat, conquer, crush, sink his Church; not even the sins of the Church’s own members, however many or terrible those sins may be—because Christ is stronger; he’s “the Son of the living God.”
Finally, Jesus will give to Simon Peter “the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” with the power to open and shut, to bind and to loose. Jesus is bestowing upon Peter real authority, an authority we often refer to in jest when we speak of Peter as the doorman at the pearly gates.

What is the nature of this authority Jesus gives to Peter? One commentator—a Protestant, incidentally—writes: “An authority has been given which extends from the work of Jesus…. This responsibility includes the making of decisions. Decisions on earth have to be made which have validity in heaven. . . . They may include decisions about the Christian way or about the life of the church.”* The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 553) is more specific: Peter has “authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church,” and “the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church”—an authority that Jesus gives generally to the apostles (Matt 18:18) but particularly to Peter; and only to Peter does he give the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

The Church’s authority to forgive sins offers to men and women in every age and all places the possibility of prevailing over the netherworld, over death. Victory over death can come only from the defeat of sin, the removal of sin, cleansing from sin.

Well and good that the sins we have committed be forgiven. Thank God! But teaching authority—the teaching of truth, the teaching of the authentic way of living as Jesus wishes—this is related to defeating sin. Followers of Jesus also want to avoid sin in the 1st place. Jesus pronounces “blessed those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Luke 11:28); he compares the person who obeys his teachings to a wise man who builds his house on a solid rock foundation (Matt 7:24-25)—an image like what he says to Peter today. We need to know how to live virtuously. And for that, we’re assured by Jesus’ promise, Peter speaks authoritatively, opening heaven to those who listen to what Peter says on behalf of Christ’s Church, closing it to those who separate themselves from Peter and the Church. The Church, with Peter in the lead, teaches us what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s moral and what’s immoral, so that the gates of the netherworld might not prevail over us, so that the devil might not claim our lives and lead us into the realm of death.

If Peter died in 67 A.D., crucified upside down in Nero’s amphitheater on the Vatican hill, but “the gates of the netherworld,” the powers of hell, are not to prevail against Christ’s Church founded upon Peter, then somehow Peter must remain the Rock beneath this permanent community called the Church. Peter’s office as the keeper of the keys, as the guarantor of the apostolic faith Peter professed to Jesus, has indeed continued. The men who succeed Peter as bishops of Rome keep the keys to the kingdom of heaven; the man we call “Pope” is now the foundation Rock of the Church that Christ built on Peter. That’s why a million youths have welcomed Pope Benedict XVI in Madrid as if he were a rock star. He is a Rock star, with a capital “R”—Peter’s successor, the rock on which rests Christ’s Church, guiding us toward eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fresco painting, above: St. Peter holding keys

Church of Quo Vadis, Rome

* Ivor Jones, “Matthew,” in Sowers & Reapers: A Companion to the Four Gospels and Acts, ed. John Parr (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), p. 94.

Five New Novices for N.R. Province

Five New Novices
for New Rochelle Province

SDB Novices Christopher Carlson, Kyle Zinno, Steven DeMaio, John Langan, and Travis Gunther pose with provincial Fr. Thomas Dunne (3d from right) in front of a statue of St. John Bosco at the provincial house in New Rochelle, Aug. 18.

Tonite, Aug. 20, the new Salesian novitiate for the U.S. was (re)inaugurated at Rosemead, Calif., in the presence of the provincials of both provinces, Frs. Tom Dunne and Tim Ploch.

God has blessed the American provinces with 7 novices this year, 2 for San Francisco and 5 for New Rochelle. They began their novitiate year this evening and, God willing, will be ready to make their religious profession next year on Aug. 21.

Fr. Bill Keane of the N.R. Province continues to serve as master of novices.

Someone remarked to this blogger this morning that the U.S. novitiate has been a little like Don Bosco's "wandering Oratory" (in the period 1841-1846 before it stabilized at what became the motherhouse of the Salesian movement). Since the sale of the former novitiate building at Don Bosco Seminary in Newton, N.J., to Sussex County in 1989, our novices have been formed in Rosemead, London, New York City, and Port Chester; and now back to Rosemead. There was also a separate novitiate in Canada for a time.

Three New Brothers for N.R. Province

Three New Brothers
for New Rochelle Province
Bros. Eduardo “Eddie” Chincha, Adam Dupré, and Marc Stockhausen made their first religious profession as Salesians on Aug. 16 during an evening Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Port Chester, N.Y.

The church was nearly full with the families of the newly professed, 37 Salesian priests and brothers, led by two provincials, Fr. Tom Dunne of New Rochelle and Fr. Tim Ploch of San Francisco, 23 Salesian sisters and novices, 1 Don Bosco Volunteer, 1 Salesian Lay Missioner, and numerous Cooperators, parishioners, and other friends of the Salesians.

During the last year the four novices, including Jared Anderson from Los Angeles, who will make his first profession on Aug. 21 in Bellflower, have been an intimate part of Holy Rosary parish life through their presence and their ministries.

Bro. Marc Stockhausen, 24, comes from Cleveland. His parents are Robert and Barbara, and he has two siblings. He was introduced to the Salesians by another candidate and counts a number of religious priests as his mentors. He entered the candidacy program at Orange in 2008 and also stayed with the Salesians in Tampa for a time.

Bro. Marc Stockhausen with his parents

Bro. Adam Dupré, 24, from Cranston, R.I., is one of Robert and Patricia Hickey’s six children. After learning about the Salesians from an Internet search, he went to Orange in 2007 and has found particular support from Fr. Steve Leake, Fr. Dominic Tran, and Fr. Bill Keane.

Bro. Adam Dupre with his parents

Bro. Eddie Chincha, 22, his parents Alberto and Lucia, and his three siblings are long-time members of Holy Rosary Parish. With much encouragement and support from Fr. Ploch when he was Holy Rosary’s pastor and from Fr. Rich Alejunas, Eddie became a candidate in Orange in 2009.

Bro. Eddie Chincha with his parents

Jared Anderson, 24, will make his profession on Sunday, Aug. 21. The Los Angeles native met the Salesians when he attended St. John Bosco H.S. in Bellflower. His parents are Richard Rakitis and Alison Anderson, and he has one sister. At Bosco, Jared says, Fr. John Roche “was a huge influence on me,” showing “me just how fun faith was,” guiding the future candidate and giving him opportunities for ministry. He entered the Western Province’s candidacy program at Rosemead in 2009.

All four newly professed brothers look forward to serving the young and the poor through Don Bosco’s charism.

The rite of first profession, while not as solemn as that of perpetual profession, includes some of the same elements: the calling of the candidates for profession, their response, an examination of their intentions, prayer for them, the profession of vows, signing the document of profession, and the presentation of a Salesian medal. In addition, newly professed “clerics” (or seminarians or students for the priesthood) receive and put on their clerical garb. (All three of the newly professed brothers, and Jared Anderson too, are students for the priesthood.) And all the newly professed receive a copy of the Constitutions of the Salesian Society.

The theme of two of the Scripture readings that the brothers chose for the Mass was the Good Shepherd (Ezek 34:1-16; John 10:11-18). Fr. Dunne, presiding and preaching, expressed his joy with that theme but began his homily with a quotation from St. Francis de Sales about the liberty with which one responds to the love that God shows us. Fr. Tom referred to “God’s seductive call of love” and said that the three about to make their vows were returning that love fully and freely by committing themselves to live the evangelical counsels in community for the sake of carrying out a mission of Christ.

Turning then to the Good Shepherd theme, Fr. Tom called it an icon of who we are as Salesians. We identify our calling as that of being good shepherds. In fact, the first Scripture quoted in our Constitutions is partly from the Ezekiel reading of the Mass (34:11,23). This icon, he said, is indelibly placed on our hearts by our vocational response. And Fr. Tom commented on the Good Shepherd image of the cross given to members at their perpetual profession.

But, he went on, we’re not really shepherds. We’re among those following the Good Shepherd; we’re part of the flock.

A shepherd, said Fr. Tom, knows each of his sheep by name and leads them to safe pastures. The sheep recognize his voice and the sound of his tin whistle. Accordingly, we listen to the tune of the Lord and to his words as we follow him. This listening, of course, begins in prayer.

And we call other sheep to join the flock through our community life and through our mission. We help lead the young away from danger and toward safety—by playing the tune of the Lord, resonating it for the young. We lead the young toward holiness by how we live out poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Fr. Tom Dunne preaching in the nearly filled church

Our fidelity, Fr. Tom said in conclusion, means more than just “sticking around”; it means growing in holiness ourselves.

At the beginning Mass, Fr. Tom noted that one reason for choosing Aug. 16 as profession day is that it’s Don Bosco’s birthday.

Bro. Eddie was chosen by his classmates to offer words of thanks at the end of Mass. He began by observing that it was Fr. Tom’s 50th anniversary of profession. The congregation responded with sustained applause. Then Bro. Eddie thanked the families of the new brothers, the people of Holy Rosary and all of Port Chester, and their Salesian brothers and sisters for their help and support.

Fr. Tom added some thanks. He called upon the parents of the newly professed to stand and accept the applause of the congregation. He thanked the Holy Rosary staff and parishioners for the example of their lives and the support of these Salesian vocations.

And then, since the U.S. novitiate will be moving to Rosemead this week, Fr. Tom “handed off” the prenovices—Chris Carlson, Steve DeMaio, Travis Gunther, John Langan, and Kyle Zinno, all of whom were in the sanctuary as servers—to Fr. Tim Ploch; and he added Fr. Bill Keane, master of novices, to the list of gifts. Fr. Bill flew to Los Angeles on the 17th; the prenovices and Fr. Tom are scheduled to fly out on the 19th. The new novitiate will be formally inaugurated on the 20th at 4 o’clock.

Homily for 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
20th Sunday
in Ordinary Time
Aug. 14, 2011
Is 56: 1, 6-7
Matt 15: 21-28
Christian Brothers, Iona College
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants—them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer” (Is 56: 6, 7).

The mission of bringing the Lord God to the Gentiles is the common thread of the readings this evening/today. Altho Jesus makes it clear that his mission was to the Jews, when he elicited faith from the Canaanite woman and treated her with mercy, he was beginning the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied centuries earlier about foreigners—Gentiles—becoming part of God’s people, coming to worship the Lord on Mt. Zion and finding joy in the temple of the Lord. In his commentary on this passage from Matthew’s Gospel, William Barclay writes: “There are tremendous implications in this passage. Apart from anything else, it describes the only occasion on which Jesus was ever outside of Jewish territory. The supreme significance of the passage is that it fore-shadows the going out of the gospel to the whole world; it shows us the beginning of the end of all the barriers.”
Jesus and the Canaanite woman (image lifted from The Deacon's Bench)
One of the implications that Barclay draws out is that this Canaanite woman was more than merely some foreigner, some non-Hebrew. “She belonged to the old Canaanite stock, and the Canaanites were the ancestral enemies of the Jews. Even at that very time, or not much later, Josephus could write: ‘Of the Phoenicians, the Tyrians have the most ill-feeling towards us.’” Jesus is really pushing the barriers, opening a path that Peter and then Paul will follow in a few years, to bring God’s mercy to the Gentiles (Rom 11:13,30,32). Jesus’ mission is truly to be universal.

That universality is expressed, e.g., in our 3d Eucharistic Prayer: “From age to age you gather a people to yourself, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name.” It will become more evident when we start using the new translation of the Roman Missal in the fall. That passage is taken from the prophet Malachi: “From the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations; and everywhere a they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering” (1:11). “From the rising of the sun to its setting”: this is geographical universality, covering the whole earth; it’s temporal universality, covering all day, every day.
Without the breaking of these barriers, Christ’s mission of salvation would have been very narrowly constrained. Not only were—and are—the Jews a very small people among all the people of the earth; but very few of them listened to Jesus and accepted him as the living Word of God, then or in succeeding centuries. If his mission were only to the Jews, then God’s salvation would hardly be universal.

Like the Canaanite woman, however, in Peter and Paul’s time the Gentiles came actively seeking that Word of life: Cornelius the Roman centurion sending for Peter and his Good News, the Greeks listening to Paul’s preaching in the synagogs and the streets of one town after another and seeking to “join themselves to the Lord, minister to him, love his name, and become his servants.”

So from its earliest days the Church, the assembly of God’s holy people, has been outgoing; has been missionary. [Your own Christian Brothers roots are missionary, resting spiritually and culturally as it were, on the island of Iona.] When the entire American Church was still officially a mission territory under the curial jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (which it was until 1908), the Salesians came here as missionaries—missionaries to pastorless Italian and Polish immigrants. For generations American dioceses have been manned by the FBI—the “foreign-born Irish” clergy who went out in wave after generous wave of missionaries all over the world, making real the mandate of our Lord to preach the Good News everywhere. Six weeks ago Maryknoll, the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, celebrated its 100th anniversary—a celebration of the mission to the Gentiles: the Chinese, and then the Japanese, the Africans, priestless Latin Americans.

[You do so well to pray for your young confreres in India, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Papua New Guinea, and Latin America—the fruits of your missionary endeavors, the future “apostles to the Gentiles” of your congregation; and to bring young confreres here to Iona to broaden their educational experience and their formation as brothers. This is one way in which we, here at home, can indirectly follow Christ’s example of eliciting faith from the nations, can carry out his command to spread the Good News.]

If we can’t go to the missions, we can still be missionaries: by prayer for missionaries, after the example of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, patroness of the missions who never left her convent in Normandy; by financial support of missionaries and specific missions; by encouraging people to consider a missionary calling. Just last Saturday we Salesians commissioned 13 lay missionary volunteers who will be going out for a year of service in Bolivia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and elsewhere. We’ve been doing this for years, and many of these young people—and some aren’t so young—find their service among orphans and in our schools so fulfilling that they sign up for a 2d year; this year a young woman in Cochabamba, Bolivia, signed up for 3d year.

Finally, and most important, we can be missionaries by faithfully living out the Gospel of Jesus ourselves, for that is silent preaching that we have found joy in the Lord’s house of prayer, a house whose doors are open to everyone everywhere.

[Bracketed passages only at Iona College]

Salesian Sisters: New Novices, New Sisters, and More

Salesian Sisters:
New Novices, New Sisters,
Perpetual Vows, & More

The first year novices of the Salesian Sisters (FMAs) have put together a 9-minute YouTube show of their reception into the novitiate and several events related to the religious professions of their "older" sisters: the blessing and presentation of the habit to the novices about to make their first professions; the first professions of 5 sisters; the renewal of vows by a large number of young sisters; and the perpetual professions of several. Enjoy! Here's the link: http://youtu.be/p4AvEc8FDNA

Preparing for Don Bosco's Bicentennial

Preparing for
Don Bosco's Bicentennial

On Aug. 16, the birthday of St. John Bosco, the Salesian Family will launch a 3-year period of preparation for celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth. Fr. Pascual Chavez, the rector major, announced the plan last Jan. 31 in a letter to the Salesians.

Today ANS (the SDB international news service based at HQ in Rome) published a short interview with Fr. Francesco Motto, director of the Salesian Historical Institute at HQ, about what it means to get to know DB.

Just a few days before the beginning of three years of preparation for the bicentennial of Don Bosco’s birth in 2015, ANS asked Fr. Francesco Motto, director of the Salesian Historical Institute in Rome, to suggest how we can learn more about this saint from Turin.

For Fr. Motto there are three stages in getting to know Don Bosco better:
-- Read the themes of the historical Don Bosco, whether religious, moral, dogmatic, political, cultural, economic, etc., in the light of analogous problems and recent events, so that they can be useful to us today.The Salesian historian starts from the simple question: “Which Don Bosco?” because “there are dozens of images of Don Bosco in books, reviews, journals, videos, film, and fiction.” He quotes the remark of Fr. Chavez’s in the strenna for 2012: “Our approach to Don Bosco, using appropriate methods of historical research, has led us better to understand and assess his human and Christian greatness, his practical brilliance, his skills as an educator, his spirituality, and his work, which are fully understood only if deeply rooted in the history of the society in which he lived.”

Understanding Don Bosco is a subject dear to the heart of the Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez. Taken up in the first theme of the Salesians’ 26th General Chapter in 2008–“Return to Don Bosco”–it was put forward again to Salesians in his letter of January 31, 2011, in which he outlined the journey of preparation for 2015: a knowledge of Don Bosco’s life story, his educational method, and his spirituality.

Fr. Motto’s suggestions – available in the Service section of ANS – are not limited to the mere knowledge of the historical data; as outlined by the Rector Major, they include consideration of the educational and spiritual context.

-- Go back to genuine and certain sources, “meaning authentic texts from Don Bosco, his writings, published by him or by his sons, on-line or on paper”;

-- Go further into the sources – even those which are most certain and valid–going beyond “a superficial and simplistic reading. It is necessary to understand the ideas and mental constructs of Don Bosco, his own values and those he adopted, his style of written and spoken language, his method of drafting and re-drafting.... A theological reading of the sources can be enhanced by a social, economic, or political reading. The supernatural must take account of natural factors. Don Bosco is not an ‘island’ in the sea of his times.”

Fr. Motto ended by explaining that “when he has understood, indicated, and explained the context, the events, the causes, and the consequences, the historian has completed his task. To his ‘historical’ interpretation there needs to be added the ‘existential.’”

Salesian Pilgrims to World Youth Day

Salesian Pilgrims
to World Youth Day

Several groups of young pilgrims accompanied by SDBs, FMAs, and youth ministers, have left for Madrid to take part in WYD. (From around the world some 7,000 members of the Salesian Youth Movement are converging on the Spanish capital.)

The group organized by the New Rochelle Province's Youth Ministry Office in South Orange has set up a blog to record their travels, thoughts, and experiences, which they've invited me to share with anyone interested in following them: http://symmadrid11.tumblr.com/

Bro. Miguel Suarez Makes Perpetual Profession

Bro. Miguel Suarez
Makes Perpetual Profession
Bro. Miguel Suarez, SDB, made his definitive commitment to God in the Society of St. Francis de Sales on Saturday, Aug. 6. The solemn Rite of Perpetual Profession of the vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity took place within Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Port Chester, N.Y.

Fr. Tom Dunne, provincial, presided and preached. Eighteen Salesian priests concelebrated. The congregation also included members of Bro. Miguel’s family, Salesian brothers and sisters, Cooperators, Salesian Lay Missioners, Holy Rosary parishioners, former students of Bro. Miguel from Salesian High School in New Rochelle, and friends.

Miguel, whose parents are deceased, was born in Mexico City and came to the U.S. with some of his family in 1985. They settled in Port Chester and joined Holy Rosary Parish, which was Miguel’s first contact with the Salesians.

He soon became very involved in the parish’s youth ministry program. Influenced by Fr. Tim Zak, coordinator of youth ministry, and the late Fr. John Murphy, coordinator of ministry to the Hispanic community, Miguel eventually realized that he would like to work with young people and immigrants as they were doing.

So in 2001 Miguel applied to enter the Salesians and joined the candidacy program at Orange, N.J. Two years later he was admitted to the novitiate at Mary Help of Christians Parish in Manhattan, and on Aug. 16, 2004, he made his first profession of religious vows there.

Bro. Miguel returned to Orange for postnovitiate formation, during which he completed a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Seton Hall University in 2007. During his practical training at Salesian High School, he taught religion and coordinated the intramural sports program. As part of his religion teaching he took up John Paul II’s theology of the body, on which he speaks occasionally to parish and youth groups.

In 2009 Bro. Miguel resumed his studies for the priesthood at the Salesian Theological School in Tlaquepaque, Mexico. After a year he transferred to Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall and re-entered the formation community at Orange. There he directs the RCIA program for Spanish-speakers at Our Lady of the Valley Church, to which the formation community is attached, and serves as a general assistant to the young candidates first trying out Salesian life.

He anticipates ordination to the diaconate next spring and to the presbyterate in 2013.

Bro. Miguel says, “God’s call is a blessing for me, for my family, for my friends who’ve supported me all these years.”


Holding a baptismal candle just lit from the paschal candle (right), to show the link between the call to Christian discipleship received in Baptism and the call being answered in religious life, Bro. Miguel Suarez pronounces perpetual vows before Fr. Tom Dunne and two witnesses (Fr. Steve Shafran and Bro. Tom Dion).

In his homily at the profession Mass, Fr. Tom noted that it was the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. He said that the apostles had followed a “vocational path” to meet God on the mountain with Jesus, and in a similar kind of way Bro. Miguel is following a path with Jesus in poverty, chastity, obedience, community life, and the Salesian mission of bringing the Gospel to all people.

Fr. Tom said that the Lord had chosen Bro. Miguel and led him by a myriad of experiences and circumstances to this day. “The Lord worked hard, and Miguel responded,” making a commitment to listen to the Lord always, as the Father’s voice instructed the three apostles on the mountain.

Fr. Tom also pointed out that perpetual profession is not the end of one’s commitment, but is a commitment to continued growth in discipleship, one day at a time, forever. He urged Bro. Miguel never to lose his sense of being consecrated to God, of serving the young, of living in community.

Then, noting the death earlier that same morning of Fr. Pat Diver (see post below), after 48 years of Salesian life—the last year spent in illness, unable to do anything but offer his sufferings to God on behalf of the young—Fr. Tom reminded Bro. Miguel that the vocation of a consecrated person is a vocation “to be,” not just “to do.”

Homily for 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
19th Sunday

in Ordinary Time Aug. 7, 2011
Matt 14: 22-33
Willow Towers, New Rochelle
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison

“He went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone” (Matt 14: 23).

Have you noticed that whenever Jesus prays, he’s alone? Even when he takes disciples with him, when he asks them to keep vigil and pray with him, they fall asleep and leave him, in effect, alone (26:36-45).

In one sense, this is fitting. As important as community is, as important as Church is—each of us must be in a personal, one-to-one relationship with God. No one else can keep vigil for us. No one else can be a close friend of God on our behalf. Each one of us has to stand alone before God and account for himself or herself.

One of the changes in our translation of the Mass texts next Advent is going to reflect this singular relationship to which God calls us. No longer will we profess “We believe in one God, we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, we believe in the Holy Spirit.” Reflecting the Latin text, Credo in unum Deum, etc., and reflecting the individuality of our Baptism, we’ll say, “I believe.”

I am responsible before God for confessing the Catholic faith, for living as a genuine disciple of Jesus, and for praying—for being in a relationship of praise, of penitence, and of gratitude with my Father in heaven. So our prayer, in this sense, is always an isolated act and state of being, even when we’re surrounded by our fellow believers, as we are right now; even when we’re praying for others and others are praying for us—all of which is very important.

There’s another meaning in the gospel verse and passage, tho. Over and over again in the gospels, Jesus is the only one in a committed relationship with God. The apostles are good men, but they don’t demonstrate at all that they’re God’s men. They certainly aren’t ready to be canonized. One of them will never make it. Jesus tries to teach them to pray (6:6-13), but we never actually see them doing so until after his resurrection. So Jesus is alone, by himself, in seeking God’s will, in trusting God’s will, in acting on God’s will, in living for God.

Christ Walking on the Water, by Amedee Varin

All of which makes the situation of the disciples in the gospel story a wonderful metaphor. When we say that someone’s at sea, we mean he’s lost, wandering, entirely unsure of what to do or where to go or how to get himself out of some pickle. When someone’s swamped at sea, he’s in imminent peril. Such is our life—our spiritual life, our moral life, the very direction of purpose of our lives, unless we’ve integrated God into our lives. That requires prayer. The apostles will always be lost, always floundering, until they learn to turn to God, to trust in God, to put themselves into God’s hands (cf. 14:30-31).

And so will we. Like Peter, we need for Jesus to reach out a hand and save us—or guide us, forgive us, console us, strengthen us. Like Peter, we have to call out to God for that help. We have to pray.

Jesus saves Peter, by Rembrandt

Fr. Patrick Diver, SDB

Fr. Patrick Diver, SDB (1943-2011)

After a long bout with cancer, Fr. Patrick Diver, SDB, died early in the morning of August 6, 2011, at Fr. Hudson House, a hospice in Elizabeth, N.J. He was 68.

Fr. Pat (left) with Fr. John Grinsell in May 2006.

Father Tom Dunne, our provincial, said that in these final months of nearly 48 years of consecrated life Fr. Pat offered himself fully to God’s will and promise.

Fr. Pat was born in Boston on August 5, 1943, to Patrick and Mary Connolly Diver. Within the month he was baptized at St. Margaret’s Church in Dorchester, which remained the family’s parish.

Following his graduation from Don Bosco Tech in Boston in 1961, Patrick enrolled in Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., as a candidate for Salesian life. In August 1962 he entered the novitiate, also in Newton, and made his first profession of religious vows on August 16, 1963.

Like all Salesian seminarians, Bro. Pat majored in philosophy at Don Bosco College, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in June 1967. He minored in classical languages.

Having volunteered for the foreign missions, Bro. Pat was sent to the Philippines, where he taught at Don Bosco Academy in Pampanga, the province’s high school seminary, from 1967 to 1970. The students greatly appreciated him as a teacher and friend. One of them, Fr. George Militante, is now provincial of the South Philippines Province, and on Aug. 9 he wrote: "We, especially those who were under him in Don Bosco Juniorate, San Fernando Pampanga, remember him fondly and are grateful to him for a job well done as practical trainee."

At the same time he undertook a master’s program in guidance and counseling at De La Salle College’s Graduate School of Education in Manila, completing his degree in May 1970. One of the papers that he presented for the degree was titled “The Counselor in the Salesian System of Education.”

Bro. Pat returned to the U.S. in 1970 to study theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio. He was ordained in Columbus on March 30, 1974, and awarded a master of arts in theology from the Josephinum in June of that year.

Fr. Pat’s first priestly assignment was as dean of students at Don Bosco College in Newton (1974-1976). Twenty-one years of school apostolate followed, during which he ministered as a guidance counselor at St. Dominic Savio HS in East Boston (1976-1980), treasurer at Dom Savio (1980-1984), and director of the school (1989-1995); he was treasurer at Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa (1984-1988) and then principal there (1988-1989), and guidance counselor at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson (1995-1997). He later had another short stint as guidance counselor at Savio Prep in East Boston (2003-2004).

Fr. Pat made a lasting impression on the young men at Savio. One alumnus, C. David Surface, writes: “He was the most honest and caring priest I have ever known. His influence helped to shape my life both professionally and from a family perspective…. I will never forget him and how he made my days at Savio truly special.”

During his first assignment in East Boston he was certified as a school guidance counselor in Massachusetts (1978).

Fr. Pat worked in parishes, too. He was pastor of Mary Help of Christians Church in Manhattan for a year (1997-1998), associate pastor at Nativity Church in Washington (2002), acting pastor of St. Theresa’s Church in Leeds, Ala. (2003), and pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Elizabeth and director of the Salesian community there (2004-2010).

From 1998 to 2002 Fr. Pat was director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, coordinating a vast fundraising program in service to Salesian missionary activities all over the world.

In 2007, while he was pastor in Elizabeth, Fr. Pat was found to have colon cancer and went through a long treatment and recovery.

In the summer of 2010 Fr. Pat completed his pastorate and directorship in Elizabeth and was assigned once more to the formation of young Salesians as a very experienced and highly valued staff member at the Don Bosco Residence in Orange. Late in the spring of 2011 cancer returned in a very serious form. When treatment was unavailing, he entered hospice care.

Bro. Gus Ramirez, one of the young Salesians from Orange, said of him: “Fr. Pat Diver was a great example of perseverance and love for the young. I will always remember him as the vital man who loved the young to the last minute of his life.”

Fr. Pat is survived by his sisters Kathleen Tubman and Maureen Fitzgerald, both of the Boston area, and by his Salesian confreres of the New Rochelle Province.

Fr. Pat will be waked at St. Anthony Church in Elizabeth on the evening of Aug. 8 and the afternoon of Aug. 9. Fr. Tom Dunne will preside over the Mass of Christian Burial at St. Anthony’s on the 9th at 7:30 p.m., and Fr. Tom Ruekert will preach, at Fr. Pat’s request. On Aug. 10 Fr. Pat will be buried in the family plot at Newton Cemetery in Newton, Mass.

Homily for 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the
18th Sunday
in Ordinary TimeJuly 31, 2011
Rom 8: 35, 37-39
Willow Towers, New Rochelle
Ursulines, Willow Dr., N.R.

“What will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8: 35).

In the 8th chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we’ve been meditating for 5 consecutive Sundays—or at least have been invited to meditate—on the glorious destiny to which God has called us in Jesus Christ: a destiny all but guaranteed to us because God has given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge (cf. 8:15-16). We hold the title, so to speak, on a fine condo in the Father’s retirement community.

Last week Paul assured us that everything works out in God’s plan for our redemption (8:28-30). Today he asks what could possibly ruin that plan. What could possibly separate us from the saving effects of Christ’s love for us? The short answer is “Nothing.” Nada. Niente. Rien.

As you know, Paul’s not very good at short answers. So he goes into some detail about threats, or supposed threats, to our ultimate well-being, the salvation that God has planned for us based on his all-powerful love for us.

Can anguish or distress separate us from Christ? Can any anxiety over life’s problems or even over our own failings cause Christ to abandon us? No. If we’re sincerely searching for God; if we’re sincerely trying to maintain healthy and loving relationships with the people in our lives; if we’re sincerely repenting of our sins and striving to improve our practice of virtue—not only will Christ not cast us away, but he will even embrace us; he will even “be moved with pity for” us, as he was for the crowd in today’s gospel (Matt 14:13-21). Our prayer after the Our Father at every Mass, to be kept free from sin and protected from all anxiety, is a reminder that only one thing can separate us from God’s love—not anguish or distress but only sin.

Can any external problems remove us from Christ’s loving embrace—external problems like natural disasters? Paul mentions famine and nakedness, and we could think of others like hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, drought, wildfires, and tornados. Sometimes these cause people to doubt God’s love for them, his concern for them. Atheists often point to them as “proof” that there’s no loving God, no all-surpassing wisdom guiding creation for our benefit.

Paul, on the other hand, suggested earlier in this chapter (3 Sundays back) that creation, too, needs to be redeemed, to be brought into line with God’s design; that it, too—like humanity—has been in a state of rebellion against its Lord. We hope, Paul says, “that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (8:21). Till then, “all creation is groaning in labor pains” (8:22). Yet Jesus Christ is testimony to the Creator’s love and his commitment to fulfill creation’s destiny, which is the new creation, the “new heavens and new earth” spoken of in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation.

What about persecution, peril, or the sword? Only if we give in. But in themselves they can’t separate Christians from Christ. In Paul’s day persecution and peril were a daily reality, and he would himself give up his life for Christ thru the sword of martyrdom. That sword brought him to the fullness of union with Christ for which he had longed (cf. Phil 3:22-23).

In our day persecution and even martyrdom are still daily realities for believers in China, Pakistan, Egypt, Vietnam, and other places where churches are burned, Christians are assaulted, priests and bishops are arrested, converts face capital punishment.

But, Paul affirms, “in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly thru him who has loved us” (8:37). Christ has loved us, Christ has shared his Spirit with us, and Christ empowers us to face down any threat, any temptation, any trial that comes to us from the world of nature or from human malice. Threats, temptations, and trials not only don’t “separate us from the love of Christ,” but they unite us more intimately with him who was threatened by Pontius Pilate and the Sanhedrin, who was tempted by Satan, and who was tried by unimaginable corporal suffering, abandonment, and death. If we have suffered with him, we shall also be glorified with him (cf. Rom 8:17).

No, not even death can separate us from Christ’s love. Didn’t he die too? He died in the ultimate act of solidarity with the human race. And those who identify themselves with him by their verbal profession of faith and especially by their following his teachings—their lived profession of faith—will meet his love in the life to come and will be glorified by that love with the life of resurrection.

No unearthly power, no demon—no angel, principality, or any other creature, as Paul puts it (8:38-39)—can come between Christ Jesus and those whom he has chosen to be his own, and who have embraced him.

Fr. Adelard "Del" Labonte, SDB

Fr. Adelard “Del” Labonté, SDB (1925-2011)

Fr. Adelard Joseph “Del” Labonté, SDB, died early on July 24, 2011, at St. Joseph Senior Residence in Woodbridge, N.J., at age 86. He had been ill for a short time and was accompanied in his last hours by the prayers and the presence of his sister Antoinette Vacca and members of his Salesian community from Orange, N.J.


The 14th of 15 children, Del Labonté was born to Emile and Alexina Dionne Labonté in L’Avenir, Quebec, on July 19, 1925, and baptized two days later in the village church of St. Pierre. When he was a boy the family moved to Providence, R.I., and became members of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, a "French parish." Del was confirmed there when he was 12.

At 14 he started high school at LaSalle Academy, but he dropped out in September 1941 to join the Navy. He saw action aboard the battleship Arkansas in support of the invasions of Normandy and southern France in June and August 1944, and the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa in February and April 1945—memories that remained vividly with him for the rest of his life.

After the war Del returned to LaSalle and graduated in June 1948. A year later he started a liberal arts course of studies at Providence College but left after a year to enter the Salesians at Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., in July 1950. He wished to study for the priesthood but found the study of Latin, especially, too daunting. He did, however, fall in love with St. John Bosco and with Mary Help of Christians. He decided to stay with Don Bosco as a coadjutor brother.

Del completed his novitiate year in Newton in 1953-1954 and made his first profession of vows as a brother on Sept. 8, 1954. After a further year of formation he was sent to Holy Rosary Church in Birmingham, Ala., along with Fr. Aloysius Trifari and Bro. Frank Tilton, to inaugurate the Salesian work there. The SDB presence later expanded to take in St. John Bosco parish (originally named St. Clement). While the parish’s clergy changed, for 36 years Bro. Del stayed on, serving the young and the poor of the parishes and of the city’s Gate City and Woodlawn neighborhoods, well known for his charity and his piety.

Bro. Del would leave the rectory early in the morning and return late at night. On a regular basis he visited the sick in hospitals and the homebound, bringing Holy Communion to the Catholics and spiritual comfort to non-Catholics. He drove Fr. Patrick Corcoran, pastor from 1968 to 1991, to the hospitals or wherever else he had to go to celebrate Mass.

A fervent devotee of the Blessed Mother, Bro. Del established “Mary’s Hour,” at which groups of parishioners gathered to pray the Rosary and sing hymns—a practice still in vogue at Holy Rosary. He had a passion for roses, which he grew near the rectory and brought to Mary’s shrine in the church.

Long before Mother Angelica became famous, Bro. Del advocated her apostolate and distributed her printed material.

To this day, local Protestants sometimes refer to Holy Rosary Church as “Bro. Del’s.” He was noted for handing out food to the needy at the rectory or bringing it to their homes, day or night, and for paying the bills of the poor.

Sally Crockett, a member of the Saint John Bosco Parish when the Salesians staffed it, writes: “I am so sorry to hear of Father Del’s death. I worked with Father (Brother) Del for many years with the youth of Saint John Bosco and Holy Rosary parishes. My family and I have many, many fond memories of him. Such a saintly man and an inspiration.

Another Birmingham parishioner, Michael Crockett, remembers Father Del this way: “I wish I could remember all the things and places he took me every Saturday and Sunday and nearly every day in summer for close to five years when I was about 12-17 years old. He opened up a spiritual world and love of the poor and elderly that have remained with me to this day. I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone else like him whom I admire so much and hope to imitate in loving others. He is still remembered and loved by everyone in this whole diocese.”

But Bro. Del hadn’t given up on the desire to become a priest. When the liturgical and seminary changes brought by Vatican II meant that a seminarian no longer had to be proficient in Latin, he received another opportunity. In 1991 he was assigned to the pastoral team of Mary Help of Christians Church on E. 12th St. in Manhattan to give him a very different parochial experience and start his transition to a possible seminary experience.

After two years at 12th St., he was enrolled in Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn., where he spent four years studying theology, noted for both his piety and his dedication to studies. He was ordained to the priesthood at Mary Help of Christians on November 1, 1997, and assigned there for the remainder of the pastoral year as an assistant pastor.

In 1998 Fr. Del went to Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, where he served as a confessor for the students and a lively presence in the SDB community for four years. Following the school’s closure in 2002, he moved across town to St. Anthony’s Church to help with parish ministry and also to help with chaplaincy work for the Salesian Sisters.

Father Del’s superior at the Tech, Father Stephen Schenck, recalls: “I remember Del being a gentleman in all things, quick to serve anyone of whose need he became aware—from getting food, to helping carry a bag, to going to the store—whatever it was, Del was eager to serve.

“I remember him as a wonderful storyteller, or ‘raconteur.’ He could recall precise details of past events, and had an enormous vocabulary which he used exceedingly well. Phrases like, ‘Her voice had a delicate, charming timbre to it...’ fell easily from his lips. From anyone else they might have sounded rehearsed, but Del excelled in the adroit use of language, particularly when describing past events.”

In May 2004 Fr. Del suffered a serious stroke, which by the following year required him to move into Saint Mary’s Life Center, a nursing home in Orange, N.J., chosen in part because of its proximity to the community of candidates and young Salesians in formation (at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Orange). As often as he could, he took part in community events and well as in events of the province community such as funerals, ordinations, and jubilee celebrations. The young SDBs and candidates enjoyed visiting him and helping him get out to events.
Bishop Luc Van Looy, SDB, stopped to chat with wheelchair-bound Fr. Del following the ordination Mass of Fr. Abe Feliciano in June 2006 at St. Anthony's Church in Paterson.


Gradually Fr. Del’s condition worsened, however, so that last February he moved to St. Joseph Senior Residence in order to have more appropriate care, including that of a Salesian chaplain at the residence.

His local superior, Fr. Stephen Leake, SDB, said, “Fr. Del will be missed for his great kindness, infectious joy, and deep devotion.”

Fr. Del was waked at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange on Tuesday, July 26, and the Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated that evening. He was buried in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen, N.Y., the following morning.

We Don't Fight in the Back Seat Any More!

And We Don't Fight
in the Back Seat Any More!

Your humble blogger, brother Chris, sister Rita

Any parent who's every transported 2 or more siblings by car for any great distance knows the routine. Start arguing, whining, or poking each other after 10 minutes or so....

Imagine family vacations before the age of the Interstate, when everything was so much further away, at least in terms of hours needed to get there.

3 Mendl kids weren't any different on those 1950s 3-day drives from Tampa to Long Island to visit family, and back.

The family get-togethers are much more serene these days. Even Rita's kids have stopped the squabbling--pretty much.

We got together last weekend to help Rita celebrate a milestone birthday.

Volunteering to Serve

Volunteering to Serve

This week Salesian Missions, thru the Salesian Lay Missioners program, has been providing orientation to 14 new volunteers, most of them young (like right out of college) but a few apparently well beyond that. They're getting about a week of intercultural and other aspects of life in the missions, together with some young people from at least one other sponsoring organization, at Maryknoll.

That will be followed by a week or 10 days of experiencing Salesian youth ministry, and practicing it, at the summer day camp at our 2 Port Chester parishes, Holy Rosary and Corpus Christi. Finally, the new SLMs will make a 6-day spiritual retreat, together with about 20 SDBs who happen to making that particular retreat; they'll get some more theoretical orientation at the same time and complete on some of their final paperwork. On Aug. 6 Fr. Tom Dunne will commission them for their missions.

This morning I had the privilege of going up to Maryknoll to offer Mass for the SLMs and other trainees and then being available to them for Reconciliation.

Here's a photo of our 14 generous folks taken right after Mass. Most of them had their eyes open by then!

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/