Homily for 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Aug. 24, 2014
Matt 16: 13-20
Woodbadge Scouters, Putnam Valley, N.Y.

“Jesus … asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matt 16: 13).

Jesus has been traveling around Galilee, preaching, healing, and debating (or arguing) with people opposed to his message and his manner.  Last Sunday he’d gone out of Jewish territory into what is Lebanon today, and in today’s gospel we find him and the apostles still beyond Jewish boundaries—today it’s in the disputed territory of the Golan Heights.

Jesus is alone with the 12 for a while that he might instruct them privately.  Next week, in a passage that immediately follows this week’s, he’s going to warn them for the 1st time of his coming passion and death.

In the light of that future, today he asks them what people think about him—the profession of pollster not having been invented yet, or Facebook.  So the apostles tell him what they’ve been hearing from people in the crowds around Jesus and perhaps around their dinner tables at home (if they weren’t hanging with Jesus 24/7—some of them may have been young and unattached enuf to do that, but others were married and presumably had families; for sure, they all had Jewish mothers!).

But after they report the various opinions comes the critical question:  “Who do you say that I am?” (16:15).  Regardless of what the crowds think of Jesus, or what the scribes and Pharisees think, the 12 must think, and speak, for themselves.  Each individual must make his own decision about Jesus.  Who is he?

The answer that a person gives to that question determines his response to Jesus himself—to his message, to his person, to his invitations:  “Come, follow me”; “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15); “As I have loved you, you must love one another” (John 13:34).

Simon answers Jesus’ question:  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16).  Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “anointed.”  Peter has identified Jesus as God’s anointed one, his agent for saving Israel and someone enjoying a very special relationship with God.  In the common understanding or expectation of the time, the Messiah would restore the kingdom of Israel with power and glory, and perhaps usher in the final age of the world, remade into a new Eden.  Because of this expectation, Jesus tells his disciples at the end of today’s gospel “to tell no one that he was the Christ” (16:20).

Undoubtedly Peter doesn’t understand, either, what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah.  More about that in next week’s gospel, when Jesus predicts his passion, death, and resurrection and Peter refuses to believe it.

Jesus addresses his question not only to the 12 but to everyone:  “Who do you say that I am?”  How we answer that is the crucial answer of our lives; our lives, here and hereafter, depend upon our answer.  Sometimes one’s answer can cost him his flesh-and-blood life, as numerous Christians find out regularly in Iraq, Nigeria, and other places.  If James Foley, a devout Catholic, had been willing to convert to Islam, he’d still be alive.

If Jesus is only a wise man like Buddha or Ben Franklin, then we may read and study his words, and take or leave them as seems best to us, based on what other wise persons have taught on our own experience, or on the fear of persecution.

Likewise, if Jesus is a respected prophet like Francis of Assisi or MLK, but nothing more.

But if we answer with Simon Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” the implications are vastly different.  No longer may we study Jesus’ words and weigh them against what other wise persons or prophets have said, or our own experience.  Rather, we are compelled to weigh our experience and the wisdom of others against Jesus’ words, to measure everything in the light of his teaching, his way of life, his call to follow him.  “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God,” Paul writes to the Corinthians.  “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (I, 1:18,25)

In the gospel today we hear, further, of the wonderful provision that Jesus made so that we might know securely—with our eternal destiny in the balance—what Jesus teaches, what Jesus requires of us, what is truly divine wisdom and not merely human “wisdom.”

Jesus declares that he will found a community—the Greek word is ekklesia, “an assembly of the citizens who’ve been called together,” which we commonly translate as “church.”  He’ll build this community upon Peter, a name that means “rock.”  Furthermore, “the gates of the netherworld”—the Greek word is hades—shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18).  The world of death—the netherworld—and death’s cause (sin), and sin’s special agent (Satan), shall not overcome Christ’s Church, which he has built upon Peter.  If we are part of this community, if we are linked with Peter, salvation from the power of Satan, from sin, and from eternal death is available to us.  Jesus guarantees it.



Jesus handing the keys to Peter by Perugino, in the Sistine Chapel

Jesus goes further, giving to Peter “the keys to the kingdom of heaven” (16:19); hence our image of Peter as the keeper of the pearly gates in both art and jokes.  Jesus gives Peter the authority to bind and to loose:  to loose people from their sins by admitting them to the sacraments and membership in the community, to bind them in their sins by judging their lack of repentance; to pass authoritative judgment on matters of faith and morals that bind our consciences as disciples of Jesus.

An example from contemporary Church life and discipleship:  A couple of weeks ago I was having dinner with some old friends.  The topic of marriage and annulments came up.  One of the party said, “I don’t think you need an annulment”; in effect, just divorce, remarry, and carry on your normal religious life.  That kind of remark seems to indicate that someone hasn’t been listening to Jesus, who says that whoever divorces and remarries commits adultery; that teaching’s preserved in 3 of the gospels (Matt 5:32; Mark 10:11; Luke 16:18), so it isn’t just a “rumor” or a whim of the Pope.  If Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, do we have to take that teaching to heart, or can we just blow it off?  Hence the role of his community, the Church, in passing judgment—binding or loosing—on the nature of marriage, the requirements of marriage, and finally the validity or nullity of a particular marriage.

The good news is that by listening to the Church, and to Peter in particular, we can’t go astray:  the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail over the truth, over our faith, over God’s grace touching us thru the Church.  Peter’s role is carried on by his successors as bishop of Rome.  When Peter speaks authoritatively on a matter of faith or of right and wrong—not on some ordinary topic like whether San Lorenzo is the best soccer team in the world (that’s Pope Francis’s team)—we know that Peter speaks for Christ, Son of the living God, and he points to us the path toward the kingdom of heaven.

SDBs Celebrate Perpetual Profession, First Profession

SDBs Celebrate Perpetual Profession, First Profession

The New Rochelle Province was blessed on August 16 with the perpetual profession of Bro. Wilgintz Polynice, SDB, and the first profession of Bro. Rafael Vargas, SDB.

The Rite of Religious Profession was celebrated during Mass on August 16 in the chapel of the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, N.Y. Fr. Tom Dunne, SDB, provincial, presided and preached. Thirty-one priests, almost all of them Salesians, concelebrated, and a large congregation of Salesian brothers, sisters, and Cooperators participated in addition to the families and friends of Bros. Wilgintz and Rafael.

Bro. Jean Wilgintz Wilgintz, 41, made his first profession as a Salesian on August 16, 2007, at Port Chester, N.Y., where he had made his novitiate. He was born at Fonds-Parisien, Haiti, in 1973 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1998. He was a member of St. Joseph’s Parish in Spring Valley, N.Y., before entering the Salesian candidacy program in Orange, N.J., in 2004. He was attracted to the Salesians because “they walk with the poor and embrace everyone without discrimination.” After his immediate postnovitiate formation in Orange, he did his practical training at the Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw in 2011-2013, and then returned to Orange to begin theological studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange.

Holding a candle lit from the paschal candle, reminding everyone of Baptism's infusing us
with the light of the risen Christ, Bro. Wilgintz pronounces his perpetual vows.

Bro. Rafael Ramon Vargas, 22, is a native of Fair Lawn, N.J., and is the son of Rafael and Carmen Vargas. He is a graduate of Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., and was a parishioner of St. Therese Church on Paterson’s East Side. While he was at DBP, he was particularly influenced in discerning his vocation by Frs. Jay Horan and Steve Ryan. He entered the Salesian candidacy program at Orange in August 2010 and did his prenovitiate year in Port Chester in 2012-2013. Fr. Bill Keane guided him through the novitiate year in Rosemead, Calif., for the last year.

Bro. Rafael professed as a coadjutor brother and will work toward a B.A. in Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University while continuing his Salesian formation at Orange. He would like eventually to make pastoral counseling his specialized ministry for the young.

Literally backed by his parents, Bro. Rafael Vargas
makes his first profession of vows as a Salesian of Don Bosco.

Bro. Rafael describes his hopes for these postnovitiate years thus: “I hope that I can truly live out being a true Salesian. To truly be committed to my community, to the young, and to living out the vows. I hope that in my studies, ministries, and in all the other things I do I may be able to do it with great passion and zeal. These next few years are a time to grow and learn, so I’m ready to go for it full force.”

Fr. Tom Dunne received the vows of both brothers. In his homily he noted the connection between Baptism and religious consecration—a connection brought out explicitly in the Rite of Perpetual Profession through the use of the paschal candle and references to “the light of Christ.” Both Baptism and religious profession are responses to God’s loving call to a disciple, who in turn seeks a more intimate union with God.

The response of the professed Salesian, Fr. Tom said, includes reflecting on the call and deepening the union, striving to live “the grace of unity,” doing everything—prayer, ministry, study, community living—with love and without limits of time or degree.

The readings that Bros. Wilgintz and Rafael chose for the day were Jer 1:4-9, Phil 4:4-9, and Luke 4:16-21. Fr. Tom pointed out that religious life, like the readings, takes one in a counter-cultural direction. The Salesian speaks for the poor and those on the margin of society. He proclaims a message of Christ crucified, which is an embarrassment to the world. The practices, activities, and expertise that he brings to community and apostolate are not enough; he needs a heart rooted in divine wisdom.

The perpetually professed confrere is presented with a cross stamped with the image of Christ the Good Shepherd. The newly professed receives a medal of Don Bosco and a copy of the SDB Rule.

Nine SDBs Renew Their Vows

Nine SDBs Renew Their Vows

The New Rochelle Province was blessed on August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, by the renewal of profession of nine young confreres. They renewed their vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity during Mass in the chapel of the Don Bosco Retreat Center at Haverstraw, N.Y., where they were on their annual retreat with about 25 other Salesians and the newly commissioned Salesian Lay Missioners (see ). Fr. Tom Dunne, provincial, presided at the Mass, received their vows, and preached.

Part of the congregation of SLMs and SDBs at
Assumption-profession Mass on Aug. 15

Bros. Lenny Carlino, Eddy Chincha, Steve DeMaio, Steve Eguino, Travis Gunther, John Langan, Craig Spence, and Dieunel Victor renewed vows for one year. Bro. Adam Dupré renewed for three years. (In recent years, it is the practice that SDBs make annual vows for their first 3 years of profession, then one profession of triennial vows before perpetual profession. It’s not uncommon, however, for a confrere to extend his temporary profession by a year or 2 before making perpetual, or final, vows.)

Bro. Steve Eguino reading at Mass

Fr. Tom’s homily linked the Virgin Mary to profession. The reading from Revelation (11:19; 12:1-6,10)  reveals that Mary is integral for the grace of salvation of all people because God sent his Son through a woman. Mary was invited to a special relationship with God: as mother and as participant in the plan of salvation. She said “yes” and responded with her Magnificat (Luke 1:39-56), attributing everything to God and placing herself as his servant. She entered a relationship of intimate union with God. Her relationship with her cousin Elizabeth was one of tender charity and great service. She exemplifies the mysticism, community, and service to which the Salesian is called.

Fr. Tom also pointed to Mary’s role as Don Bosco’s guide and support, given to him in his first dream when he was bewildered by the command to turn wild animals into gentle lambs. Mary became their shepherdess. She fills the same roles of guide, support, and shepherdess for Salesians. She is also an example of evangelization and reaching out to the poor.

From the left: Bros. Steve DeMaio, Travis Gunther, Adam Dupre,
Steve Eguino (in back), and Lenny Carlino; Fr. Tom Dunne;
Bros. Craig Spence, Eddy Chincha, Dieunel Victor, and John Langan

Salesians Commission 20 Lay Missioners

Salesians Commission

20 Lay Missioners

The SDBs of the St. Philip the Apostle Province commissioned 15 young women and 5 young men as lay missionary volunteers on Thursday, Aug. 14, at the Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y. As Salesian Lay Missioners, they’ll serve for a year at Salesian missions, or those of a similar nature, in Tampa and Belle Glade, Fla., and in Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, and South Sudan. Most will begin their service in September.

The commissioning took place at a Mass within a retreat that included the 20 SLMs and about 35 SDBs. Fr. Tom Dunne, our provincial, presided over the Mass and the commissioning rite, and Fr. Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, preached the homily.

Introducing the Mass, Fr. Tom linked the commissioning rite, as well as the upcoming rites of religious profession, with the union with Jesus Christ that began with the Baptism of everyone involved.

Fr. Mark observed that each of the SLMs had heard Christ call her or his name and had responded with a willingness to head into a place unknown to make Christ known and carry on his mission of sharing the Father’s love for humanity. Like the saint of the day, Maximilian Kolbe, they’re called to “give up” and to “hold fast”: to give up their lives—or a piece of their lives—for the sake of others, and to hold fast to the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel.

Fr. Tom blessing the missionary crosses, assisted by Slavka (hidden) and Adam

The 20 SLMs range in age from 20 to 31 and include a married couple. They come from Arizona, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.

They include graduates from Bowling Green, De Sales, Indiana Southeast, James Madison, John Carroll, Long Beach State, Northern Colorado, Notre Dame, Rutgers, St. Edward’s, Vanderbilt, and Western Carolina universities and Belmont Abbey and Cabrini colleges.

Several have been employed for a few years since college, e.g., in church ministry, in hospitality, and as teachers.

As missioners they’ll serve in youth centers, orphanages, middle schools, high schools, catechetical programs, and retreat programs. Those who will teach in academic settings will instruct in English language, computer science, accounting, and secretarial skills.

The SLMs expect to serve primarily with a “ministry of presence” and to grow as Christians by loving, as unconditionally as they can, the children and young adults to whom they are being sent.

The volunteers had a rigorous screening before being accepted into the program. Immediately prior to their commissioning they had more than three weeks of orientation, which included an introduction to St. John Bosco and the Salesians, cross-cultural training, a week’s service in the Salesian summer day camp at Port Chester, and a retreat. Most will have a month or so to close up personal business and say good-byes before departing for their assignments.

Part of the SLMs orientation involves camaraderie, forged in part by an outing to Bear Mountain State Park (on a somewhat wet Aug. 12 this year). Your humble blogger celebrated Mass with them before lunch in one of the pavilions, and then we all hiked up the 1,300' mountain.

The orientation weeks were planned by the SLM director, Adam Rudin, with Fr. Mark. Mr. Rudin led the orientation with generous and capable assistance from returned SLMs Amber Kraft (Bolivia, 2009-2012) and Michelle Webb (India, 2009-2010) and a leader in the Slovak Province’s volunteer program, Slavka Brigantova.

The Salesian Lay Missioner program has sent thousands of young (and sometimes older) volunteers to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and U.S.-based missions over the last 30 years. The SLM program is based at Salesian Missions in New Rochelle.

This year’s batch will be missioned to:

            Bolivia: Cochabamba                          Karen Dziekonska

                                                                        Brittany Redmond

            Bolivia: Montero                                  Kelsey Lamb

                                                                        Gabbi Poetzl

                                                                        Cara Welker

            Bolivia: Santa Cruz                              Jamie Korsgaden

                                                                                Becky Lograsso

            Bolivia: Yapacani                                Connor Bergeron

            Brazil: Manaus                                     Tara Bailey

                                                                        Molly Young

            Cambodia: Phnom Penh                      Amanda Cisneros

                                                                        Maggie Hutchison

                                                                        Clare Pressimone

                                                                        Sarah Taylor

            South Sudan: Gumbo (Juba)                Matt Bauer

                                                                        Kevin Kho

            Florida: Belle Glade                             Matt Marinelli

            Florida: Tampa                                    Jennifer Kennymore

Part of every Salesian retreat is a short entertainment on its last nite, following supper. When the SLMs are taking part, they also provide some numbers, usually of a musical sort.  Some are some serious songs or poetry, some are light-hearted.  And then there was this:



Clare wrote the lyrics to that little number called "Don Bosco's Style":

1. It’s Don Bosco Style.

Don Bosco Style?
We are all here ’cause we have something in common.
Put on this earth to do so much more than walk on.
You know we heard the call to love all of God’s children.
Led by that guy from Turin.

2. Don Bosco said, it ain’t enough to simply love them, no.

Don Bosco said, they got to know that lovin’ feelin’, go!

3. Don Bosco called, each one of us to serve around the world, around the world, all around the world.

We’re from New York, PA, and Cali, New Jersey, MO, Canada, Ohio,
Texas, Holland, Mass, Virginia, Mexico, Rhode Island, yo!
We got so many in this province here alone-one-one-one!

4. That’s Don Bosco Style.

Bosco Style.

5. That’s Don Bosco Style. 

Bosco Style.

6. That’s Don Bosco Style.

Heyyyyyyyyyy, Mother Mary,
Help, Help, Help, help, help, Help of Christians,
Heyyyyyyyyyy, Mother Mary,
Pray, pray for us, pray-ay-ay-ay-ay.

When he was a kid John Bosco had some dreams and visions.

He felt the call to be a priest and help all age of chilluns.
He answered loud, and devoted life to Mary, opened or-a-tories, what?
Home, Church and school, and playground were the four important parts,
But most of all, Bosco called all of us to work with heart,
No matter where, we gotta use that reason, religion, kindness, around the world, all around the world.

We SLMs head off to Asia, Florida, Bolivia,

South Sudan, Cambodia, and Brazil, that’s where we go!
Evangelizin’ as Salesians! Yeah, yeah, yeahhhh!
That’s Don Bosco style.
Bosco Style.
That’s Don Bosco style.
Bosco Style.
That’s Don Bosco style.

Heyyyyyyyyyy, Mother Mary,

Help, Help, Help, help, help, Help of Christians,
Heyyyyyyyyyy, Mother Mary,
Pray, pray for us, pray-ay-ay-ay-ay.

Our time with you is coming to an end, so we just have to say, listen up,

Our time with you is coming to an end, but we just want to say: Thank you SDBs!
All together now!

Heyyyyyyyy

Heyyyyy, Mother Mary,
Help, Help, Help, help, help, Help of Christians,
Heyyyyyy, Mother Mary,
Pray, pray for us, pray-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay.
That’s Don Bosco Style!

Homily for 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
20th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Matt 15: 21-28
St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.
Aug. 17, 2014                                                             

“A Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, ‘Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!’” (Matt 15: 22).

Christ & the Canaanite Woman
Juan de Flandes, c. 1500

The gospel reading today is one of the more challenging passages in the NT.  Jesus seems to be a little hard-hearted, reluctant to help someone in need.  What’s going on?

Earlier in this chapter, Matt 15, Jesus has been arguing with the scribes and Pharisees (15:1-9) and dealing with his own disciples’ lack of understanding (15:10-20).  Now Jesus has left Jewish territory; it would seem—we can’t say, for sure, on the basis of what Matthew tells us—that he wants to get a break, get some R&R.

If something like that is the case, this Canaanite woman is interrupting the peace and rest that Jesus and the apostles are seeking and, no doubt, need.  She’s intruding.

She is, moreover, a Gentile, a non-Jew, a pagan.  The Jews would naturally be prejudiced against her, look down on her, and want nothing to do with her.  Jesus doesn’t automatically act that way—when a Roman centurion came to him with a similar plea, he was very receptive (Matt 8:5-13)—but he does initially ignore this woman and then speak harshly and dismissively to her, it certainly appears.

This woman even comes with faith.  Notice how she addresses Jesus:  “Lord, Son of David.”  Tho not Jewish, she recognizes him as Messiah!  She’s steps ahead of the apostles, even, in that recognition, and way ahead of the scribes and Pharisees who are giving Jesus such a hard time.  She probably doesn’t have a deep understanding of what Jesus’ messiahship means—the apostles haven’t got a clue, either—but she recognizes that he has power over the demons.  She appeals to him for a kind of salvation—not eternal salvation but liberation from this demon who “is tormenting her daughter, whatever that may mean.  She makes the cry of a concerned mother:  Jesus, Lord, save my daughter!

When the disciples beg Jesus to shoo her away—“She’s a pest!  Get rid of her!” (cf. 15:23)—he answers them that his mission is to Israel, not the Gentiles.  Jesus demonstrates the very issue that the early Church would struggle with for at least a generation, maybe longer:  Is Jesus the Savior of all people, or only of the Jews?  Does God care about the pagans, or only the Jews?  Here, he limits himself, and God’s care, to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (15:24).

She pleads again with him.  Her address, “Lord” a 2d time, could be taken to refer again to Jesus as Messiah, the way that title is used in Ps 110, for example (not that this woman from Phoenicia would have known Ps 110).  The other way of using the title Lord is as a divine address, the equivalent of YHWH, God’s personal name:  e.g., when St. Paul proclaims in Philippians, “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”(2:11).  The woman could be recognizing Jesus’ divine power, which not even the apostles have done yet.

And again, Jesus denies her—with an insult!  “It’s not right to take the children’s food”—God’s gifts to Israel—“and throw it to the dogs” (15:26).  He’s calling her a Gentile, a dog—as great an insult as you can utter in the Middle East.  Dogs are scavengers that roam the streets and the fields.  They’re unclean.  They’re not welcome in polite society.

But the woman’s not insulted, or at least doesn’t indicate she is.  She’s humble, realizing that she’s imposing on Jesus and is crossing the line of a cultural taboo, the line of separation between Jews and Gentiles, like that between Jew and Palestinian today.

She’s also quick-witted.  She has a comeback:  Yes, you might have to feed the kids first; but the dogs get the table scraps! (15:27)

Jesus admires that.  He’s also aware that the scribes and Pharisees have been refusing to come to the table of his teaching, his healing power, and his forgiveness.  So what should happen with the “leftovers” that they won’t partake of?  Even more, he can’t resist this woman’s faith—the faith that acknowledges he’s the Messiah, that he’s the devil’s master, that he acts with God’s own power, that he can save anyone.  “Woman, great is your faith,” he exclaims.  “I grant your wish” (15:28).

By listening to the prayer of a Gentile woman, Jesus also signals how the Church will eventually settle the great argument—not too strong a word—about whether to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.  Those, like St. Paul, in favor of taking in the Gentiles could point back to Jesus’ own actions:  responding not to blood or nationality, but to faith.  It’s faith in Jesus Christ that saves us, not our race or external religion.

This Canaanite woman shows us what faith-filled prayer is like.  She’s persistent.  She’s not put off.  She won’t take no as God’s final answer.  She just keeps at it, even to the point of annoying the heck out of the apostles (which probably didn’t take much).

She’s humble.  She knows she needs help.  She can’t save her daughter, as none of us can resolve our most fundamental concerns, especially those of the heart and the soul.  She pleads, perhaps on her knees, perhaps prostrate, completely helpless—which is the only position in which God can help us.  That, as you may know, is the starting point for A.A. and similar groups; it’s the necessary starting point of our spiritual lives.  I don’t have the answers.  I don’t know how to overcome my sins.  I don’t know how to get to heaven.  I need God.  I need Jesus as my Savior.

A 3d thing about this woman, a very interesting thing, is that she talks back!  She debates with Jesus.  She does this with the humility to accept an insult but with openness and sincerity.  “You have a point,” she tells him, “but how about thinking about this?”  Yes, we can argue with God—a tradition as old as the prophet Jeremiah and the Book of Job—complain to God, even tell God off, so long as we’re speaking from our hearts and ultimately are prepared to do his will, as Jesus did.

Those 3 ingredients—persistence, humility, and sincere dialog with God—are great faith and true prayer.

Homily for 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Aug. 10, 2014
Matt 14: 22-33
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.

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

What we hear in the gospel today immediately follows last week’s story of how Jesus miraculously fed “the vast crowd” with 5 loaves and 2 fish (Matt 14:13-21).  In St. John’s account of this episode (6:1-15), the people react by wanting to make Jesus their king; they want to overthrow Herod and replace him with Jesus.  And Jesus flees.  Matthew doesn’t voice that concern, the danger of a political revolution.  But perhaps it lies behind Jesus’ sending his disciples away; he doesn’t want them catching any revolutionary fever from the crowd and misunderstanding what his real mission is—they already misunderstand it badly enuf!

In any case, Jesus is alone, and he turns to prayer.  Have you ever noticed, as you read the gospels, that Jesus is the only one who prays?  The best the disciples can do is ask him to teach them to pray—and that’s mentioned only once, by Luke, as coming from one disciple (11:1).  Even when he invites them, pleads with them, to pray with him in Gethsemane, all they can do is fall asleep (Matt 26:36-45).

Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (detail),
Marian Shrine, Haverstraw, N.Y.

Jesus alone prays.  Jesus alone is totally united with the Father.  Jesus alone does God’s will completely during his earthly life.  He speaks truth, does good, is always faithful.  All of that is grounded in the union of his will with God’s will, a union that comes—as regards Jesus’ human nature—from prayer.

If we wish to be faithful disciples of Jesus, people who live the truth and do good, people completely devoted to God—holy Christians, in other words—we must pray.  When that one disciple asked him to teach them to pray, he taught them the Our Father, which is the model for our prayer, whatever words we may use, whatever aspirations may surface in our hearts.

Only prayer unites us with our Father in heaven, as it kept Jesus in his human nature united with the Father thru temptations and trials.  A song from Jesus Christ Superstar poses the possibility that Jesus could’ve abandoned the Father’s will:

Nazareth, your famous Son
Should have stayed a great unknown
Like His father carving wood
He'd have made good.
Tables, chairs and oaken chests
Would have suited Jesus best--
He'd have caused nobody harm, no one alarm!

It’s thru his humanity that Jesus redeems us, and without his human cooperation with the divine will, we wouldn’t have been saved.  Only prayer enables us to discern God’s work in our lives and his will for us, that we might speak and act the way he wants us to—as followers of Jesus.

The gospel passage stresses that Jesus is alone as he prays.  There is another meaning, another implication here, another necessary lesson.  However important community is for us, however important God’s people is in our lives, in our spiritual growth, in supporting us—each one of us is responsible for himself or herself before God.  No one else can take our place in developing and maintaining a virtuous life, a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ and his Father, a life full of love for God and neighbor.  No one else will have to give an account of our lives to the Supreme Judge.  At that tribunal we’ll be alone—with our dearest friend and our Savior if we have personally given ourselves to him and have lived for him as best we can.  Or we’ll be alone and terrified before the Judge if we haven’t been faithful Christians, haven’t kept the Commandments and practiced the Beatitudes (which Pope Francis said last week every Christian should memorize because they’re the path for happiness for every person and are “a portrait of Jesus and his way of life”)[1]; we’ll be alone and terrified before the Judge if we don’t recognize him because we haven’t spoken with him and lived with him.  Only we can commit ourselves to Jesus.  Only we can make the choice to follow him.

If we do walk with Jesus, of course we’ll never be alone, and we’ll never have to fear.  He repeatedly tells his disciples, as he does today, “Don’t be afraid” (14:27)—don’t be afraid because he’s with us.  If we walk with Jesus, we will not sink (cf. 14:30).  If we walk with Jesus, we may dare to call [God] our Father,” as today’s Collect says, and be confident that we do come before the Judge of the World, “we may merit to enter the inheritance [God has] promised” to his sons and daughters (Collect).

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                [1] Audience, Aug. 6, 2014.

 

Homily for 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
18th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Aug. 3, 2014
Rom 8: 35, 37-39
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.

“What will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8: 35), Paul asks in the 1st sentence of our 2d reading.

The sense of the question is, “Is there anything that could possibly keep Christ from loving us or that could put us beyond the reach of his love?

That may beg a question:  what does “Christ’s love” mean?  For starters, it means the forgiveness of our sins; it means God the Father’s love embracing us, his children, because Christ has embraced us; it means the promise of resurrection on the Last Day and eternal life with Christ among all the saints.

So, Paul asks, can anything separate us from Christ’s love?  He lists some things that might daunt us, might give us the impression that God doesn’t really care about us, that might tempt us to put Christ aside.

Anguish and distress—these are part of our lives:  all sorts of emotional turmoil, brought upon us by many causes.  We have family concerns, health concerns, social and political concerns.  We’re concerned about wars around the globe and violence in our towns and cities, about the environment, about the economy, about children migrating a thousand miles alone, about children whose lives have been shattered by war in Syria and Gaza and Congo.

Refugees at Don Bosco Center, Goma, D.R. of Congo

Paul adds “famine, nakedness, or peril.”  We could add hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, unemployment, homelessness, people living in refugee camps, human trafficking, drugs, alcoholism, broken families, terrorism.  Sometimes nature seems to be at war with us, and sometimes human beings create unbelievable suffering.

Paul also lists “persecution” and “the sword,” which are the same thing.  Persecution, discrimination, harassment, the threat of mob violence, and even death were part of being a Christian in the 1st century.  After Paul’s own death—by the sword, by beheading during Nero’s persecution—Christians could have their property confiscated, those few Christians who belonged to the upper class and thus had property to be confiscated; they could be sentenced to hard labor, be horribly tortured even if they weren’t beheaded, burned alive, or put into an arena with wild beasts.

St. Paul in St. Peter's Square,
holding a sword symbolic of his martyrdom
and a scroll symbolic of his letters

In the last few weeks we’ve heard fresh stories about the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria—Christians run out of town or executed, their property seized, by the so-called Islamic State; Christians blown up in Nigeria; churches being destroyed in China.

In the face of persecution, some people do separate themselves from Christ—publicly renouncing the faith in favor of the prevailing government policies or social pressures.  It happened in the Roman persecutions, it happened behind the Iron Curtain—as our Slovenian and Croatian parishioners know well—and it happens today in China and Islamic societies.  None of us can be sure how faithful we’d be if faced with the threat of losing our livelihood, our freedom, even our lives.  Which doesn’t mean that Christ would have separated himself from us; no, he’s the good shepherd who ever goes looking for his lost sheep; he’s the loving father constantly on the lookout for his wayward children.

In fact, in our own country you could be put out of business if you believe that your college, radio station, hospital, bakery, or photography studio should observe Christian moral principles.  Our faithfulness, too, is being tested.  Unlike the Christians of the Middle East, tho, we can insist publicly on our constitutional rights to live what we believe, if we are truly attached to Christ, if separation from him is truly the worst thing that we can imagine.

Probably, tho, more people feel they’ve been abandoned by God, separated from God, if they feel that way, by some great tragedy—in their own lives, such as the death of a loved one or some unbearable suffering, or something more public like a natural disaster or a horrible act of violence.  Where was God in Newtown?  Where was God on 9/11?  Where was God during the tsunami in the Indian Ocean?  Where was God when my parent or my child was dying from cancer?  Where is God when I’ve been out of a job for 2 years?

A tiny bit of tsunami damage, 2004

Those are hard questions, questions without any sure answer in this life.  Paul states flatly, “No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us” (8:37).  Who has loved us?  Jesus Christ!  Jesus, who was a child refugee from persecution, who went thru unbearable suffering and violent death—a most unjust death, an undeserved death—in the same human condition, the same human nature, in which you and I live.  If the Son of God came down from heaven to be with us and go thru a human life like ours, how could he not continue to stand with us even now?  He is the living expression of God’s solidarity with us.

When we lose someone we love—our parents, too often a son or daughter, a friend—it can be devastating.  I still miss my mom, who died 27 years ago; my dad, who died 8 years ago; some of my Salesian confreres who died way too young. My Boy Scout troop still hasn’t recovered fully from the loss of our Scoutmaster on 9/11.  Every one of you could make a similar list.

With Dad at provincial house, 2003

Does death separate us from the love of Christ?  No!  It is, in fact, Christ who will reunite us with those we love.  If we believe that Jesus is risen, if we believe as we profess every Sunday in “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come,” then we believe that on the Last Day every human being will be raised up from the grave, from the depths of the sea, from ashes—no “height nor depth … will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:39)—and we will be with all our loved ones forever.  The only proviso, of course, is that we and they shall have responded to God’s grace in this life and shall be counted among the sheep whom the Eternal Judge, according to Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25, will set to his right side as “blessed by” the Father and welcome into “the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world” (v. 34).  That parable tells us how we are to respond to God’s grace:  by sharing the love of Christ with our less fortunate brothers and sisters, by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, caring for the sick, etc. (vv. 35-36).

What can separate us from the love of Christ?  Nothing, says Paul; and Jesus adds that we are to be the love of Christ to others, so that they may not feel any separation, just as Jesus in today’s gospel showed compassion for “the vast crowd” that came to him, and healed them and fed them (Matt 14:13-21).  As Jesus said to the expert in Jewish law who questioned him and induced him to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:25-37).  Go and show the love of Christ to your families and to everyone you encounter, so that no one will think he or she has been separated from that love.  “Go,” as we say often at the end of Mass, “and announce the Gospel of the Lord.”

Happy Birthday, Don Bosco!

Something initiated by young SDBs in the Philippines--

200 yrs ago, he started a trend. This year let's make him trend. #HappyBirthdayDonBosco

Perhaps, Saint John Bosco is the only saint that is being celebrated in and with the social media. More popularly known as Don Bosco, he is the "father, teacher and friend of the young."  He was born 200 years ago. He has spent his lifetime caring for the poor and abandoned youth. He has lived his life for the young. His love for the youth still radiates and lives on today.

Grateful for his life and legacy, we enjoin all people especially the youth to celebrate his birthday in the web and in their communities.