Homily for 2d Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Easter
John 20: 19-31

This Sunday (April 12, 2015) I celebrated a vigil Mass for Boy Scouts in Putnam Valley, N.Y., and a morning Mass for the patients at St. Vincent Hospital in Harrison, N.Y., using the epistle (1 John), the gospel, and the collect for my texts but without a written text. So, as per my custom, here's an oldie--which evidently has been recycled once already!

April 22, 1979
OL of Prompt Succor, Westwego, La.
April 18, 1982
DBT, Paterson, N.J.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29).

One of my junior religion students tells me he feels at a disadvantage because he doesn’t see and hear Jesus the way the people of the 1st-century Palestine did.  I sense that a lot of his schoolmates agree with him.  Wouldn’t our faith be stronger if we could see Jesus, raised from the dead, as Thomas did?

Incredulity of St. Thomas by Guercino

This student and many of us probably experience occasional doubts about God, about salvation, about resurrection, about eternal life, about miracles.  We say, “If only I were able to see Jesus, then all my doubts would be cleared away.”

Such doubting is not wrong.  It is part of a process of reflecting on our belief.  Religion is not something to be taken forever exactly the way we first heard it.  We all face a time when we question Santa Claus, and that time perhaps marks the transition from childhood into adolescence.  Linus, of Peanuts fame, will remain a child as long as he accepts unquestioningly his belief in the Great Pumpkin and his need for that security blanket.  Of course, we all know Linus is right in one matter:  there really is an Easter beagle.

So a maturing faith must face doubts and ask questions.  The great theologians of the Middle Ages—St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, and others—described their work as “faith seeking understanding.”  It was a process of questioning and of careful consideration of as many options as their minds could devise.  St. Augustine struggled with his beliefs and his way of living for 20 years before coming to the truth and accepting the Christian faith.

Our age is more skeptical than earlier centuries.  We ask the most basic questions:  Is there a God?  Does he care about us?  Can we know good from evil?  Does anything make any difference?  Is there life after death?  Did Jesus really rise?  Is the Church really God’s instrument of salvation?  How do I know the Bible is true?

To ask those questions, or ones like them, is almost a necessity for us.  The apostle Thomas was as ordinary a person as we are.  We need to face the questions, not to run away from them, not to say Christians have no doubts.  Every virtue, including faith, grows thru struggle and temptation.  We can depend on God only when we recognize our own weakness.

The 4th-century monks of Egypt tell a little story about a certain abbot named John the Dwarf.  He “had prayed to the Lord and the Lord had taken away all his passions, so that he became [impassive].  And in this condition he went to one of the elders and said:  You see before you a man who is completely at rest and has no more temptations.  The elder said:  Go and pray to the Lord to command some struggle and be stirred up in you, for the soul is matured only in battles.  And when the temptations started up again he did not pray that the struggle be taken away from him, but only said:  Lord, give me strength to get through the fight.”[1]

So, be not disturbed if you have doubts of faith, or any other temptation for that matter.  Be disturbed if you don’t.

We might for a moment consider that other point:  If I could see Jesus….  Remember that Jesus preached to thousands, but his followers were few.  The chief priests and scribes witnessed his miracles as well as the ones the apostles did after the resurrection, but they didn’t come to faith.  It was one of his closest followers who betrayed him.  The 1st-century Jew had no advantage in faith over us at all.

How, then, did some recognize Jesus for who he was—our Lord and God, in Thomas’s words?  The key is in his word.  He is the Word of life.  We hear what he says, and God’s Holy Spirit moves us to believe in his word and in him.  We know God speaks thru him because the message of truth strikes to our hearts and invites us to be converted and to give ourselves to God.

A concluding story may serve as an illustration of the power of God’s word addressed to us and asking for our faith.  It’s a bit long, but it’s true.

Around the year 385, a young pagan scholar from North Africa, seeking fame and fortune, took a teaching position at the Roman emperor’s court in Milan.  There he came under the influence of St. Ambrose, the noble and learned bishop of Milan.  He was amazed at Ambrose’s celibacy and also at his eloquence.  He began going to Mass to hear Ambrose preach.

At the same time, he continued his ambitious, vain, and pleasure-seeking ways, all the while recognizing the emptiness of his life.  He began to question that meaningless life and the selfish self who led it, but he could not break with it.  He couldn’t leave behind the very evil he was beginning to detest.

He read some of the pagan philosophers and came to understand the existence of a spiritual world.  He saw evil as a distortion of a man’s spirit.  But still he couldn’t bring himself to change his own self-centered and lustful life.

Then this man discovered the Scriptures, especially St. Paul, with their message of deliverance from the flesh and from worldliness in Jesus Christ.  But still he couldn’t bring himself to change, to act on what he saw as good and right.

The influence of Ambrose weighed on his soul.  The holiness of life of his mother, St. Monica, spoke to his heart.  Yet he couldn’t bring himself to make the sacrifices that practicing chastity and renouncing fame and money would require of him.  He resolved to begin, but did not; tried to begin, but could not.

One day, meditating in his misery and on the example of earlier Christian heroes who had once been like him, he heard a child’s voice, chanting again and again from next door, “Take up and read; take up and read.”  Realizing that such words belonged to no children’s game he knew of, he saw in them a sign from heaven and went to the Scriptures.  He opened the volume and read the first paragraph he saw:  “Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in debauchery and lust, not in quarreling and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:13-14).  With a word of Scripture personally addressed to him, all the gloom of doubt and hesitancy vanished away.  At the age of 30, St. Augustine, future bishop and doctor of the Church, was converted to Christ.

St. Augustine
(Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, Turin)

In the same way does Christ speak personally to us, to our needs, to our doubts, to our fears, to our desires.  He is still alive and speaking to us today.  You will meet your Lord and your God in the Scriptures and in the sacraments, personally inviting you to faith, as he did Thomas and Augustine.

---

     [1] Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, xci.

The Annual Easter Hike

The Annual Easter Hike

Every year during Easter week, while Catholic schools are on holiday, Fr. Jim Mulloy and I try to get together for a couple of days of hiking and camping, usually in Harriman State Park, which is convenient, has hundreds of miles of well-marked trails, and has good lean-to shelters.

In 2009, however, we made a foray into the Catskills that didn't work out so well, thanks to my own carelessness.

In 2010 we had only 1 nite available and, interestingly, encountered a hiker at Bald Rocks who came down from the Adirondacks to enjoy our more modest state park!

We didn't do a hike in 2011.

In 2012 I had to go out solo, on the Pine Meadow and Suffern-Bear Mountain trails, and made the mistake of not bringing a tent.

In 2013 we had a remarkably cold and windy--but sunny--outing, visiting Fingerboard and Stockbridge shelters.

Last year I didn't blog our hike into some of the lake country of the park.  Sometimes it just gets too hectic in the communications office! We included 2 friends (photo) for a 2-day, 1-nite jaunt. It was cold and sunny, and we had a good time:

This year we didn't have much luck with weather after my calendar opened on Easter Tuesday.  The rest of the week had rain in the forecast until Friday afternoon, and I had commitments again on Saturday.  So we planned to take our chances on the rain on Tuesday afternoon thru Thursday morning, pretty sure we could land a shelter in mid-week when almost everyone would be back in school and the weather would deter sane folks.

Given the forecast, we considered making Fingerboard, Big Hill, and Stockbridge our destination. Tom Jones is open on 2 sides, Brien Memorial leaks, and Stone Memorial is a real trek to get to. We opted for Big Hill.

Big Hill Shelter, built 1927, from the west

After parking along the road near St. John's Church, behind 2 other cars, we took the connecting trail down to the Long Path, glad it wasn't raining (which it had been doing in New Rochelle and on my way toward Ramsey to pick up Fr. Jim) and hurrying to reach the shelter before the rain caught us. Maybe hurrying too much; only about 10 minutes into our hike, Fr. Jim tripped and fell hard. He seemed to be OK, tho, except that a toe hurt. So we continued, stopping to catch our breaths a couple of times.

Neither of us had hiked this approach to Big Hill in a while, and we'd forgotten how long it takes to reach the old turnpike woods road, altho the Long Path kind of skirts it in a few places. We were hoping to meet some day hikers coming out (returning to those 2 cars), but we met no one. So with some trepidation we finally approached the shelter after about an hour on the trail.

I smelled campfire smoke as I came near, but we were fortunate: the shelter was empty. There were still hot embers in both fireplaces, tho. Evidently some day hikers had gone out by another route, or perhaps they were backpackers heading further, one way or the other, on the Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail, which crosses the Long Path at the shelter.

So we dumped our backpacks and, still in our ponchos, went out to round up firewood. There was almost none to be found near the shelter, certainly nothing substantial--lots of twigs.  It had rained, and everything was damp. So were we by the time we finished!

We observed that a good bit of standing wood had been cut by previous occupants of the area--always a no-no in the state park.  Eventually, ranging hundreds of feet in either direction along the SBM and general area, I managed to find some more serious firewood--all of it quite dead--on Tuesday and Wednesday, some of which I had to cut with my very reliable Sven folding saw.

More distressing than the hunt for firewood, which we'd expected, was the amount of litter in the vicinity of the shelter.  I don't think I've ever seen so much: various kinds of paper, food wrappers, beer cans and bottles, water bottles, and other detritus. We packed a good bit out with us in addition to our own little bit of trash.

Fr. Jim reviews the trail map before going for water.
We haven't found a lot of firewood.

Fr. Jim performed his customary chore of going to fetch water, which involved a long hike to the Third Reservoir.  While he was gone, I prayed part of the breviary, then started a fire so that we'd have coals for cooking when he got back.

In the meantime, the clouds lowered, and it drizzled.  Visibility got down to a couple of hundred feet.

When Fr. Jim returned, he took his turn with the breviary while I cooked hot dogs on my little grill over the fire, and added cheese and crackers to the menu.  I topped my supper off with an orange.

The temperature seemed to be dropping; it must have been in the low 40s, and it certainly was damp.  So gradually we added layers of clothing, and we kept the fire stoked.  Lots of talking about past hikes, school, Salesian doings.

Not very long after dark, both of us retired to our sleeping bags.  When I had to get up in the wee hours (that could be a pun!) to go visit Mother Nature, the sky had cleared, and in the 36-mile distance the lights of Manhattan shone wonderfully.  I didn't think to take a photo.  Besides, it was really cold!  While outside in the wind, which was brisk, I shivered like a leaf.  So I put on more clothing and got back into my bag as soon as I could.

I woke up (after a fitful sleep in any case) with dawn and bird song. The sky was still low, but at least it wasn't raining.  Before long, the sky cleared quite a bit, remaining gray (and no more Manhattan). I could see the Hudson off in the eastern distance.

That horizontal sliver of water in the distance is the Hudson River.

I got up at 6:45 and restarted the fire--didn't even need a match because the embers were still not from last nite.  That took off the chill inside the shelter.  I cooked scrambled eggs, but to my distress I'd forgotten to restock my instant coffee and had enuf for only 2 cups--1 on Wednesday, 1 on Thursday. I finished breakfast with a granola bar. I prayed Readings and Morning Prayer.

Then I went foraging for more firewood, venturing a quarter mile out along the SBM (photo above; see yellow trail blazes).  By my 2d trip back with wood, Fr. Jim had gotten up.  I cooked eggs for him too (I had the skillet-mess kit, and the backpacking stove; he didn't). His ankle was giving him a lot of pain--a result of that trip yesterday that hadn't revealed itself until the middle of the nite, he said--and he suggested we not stay the 2d nite. Besides, the forecast was for still colder weather and more rain in the afternoon and evening. So we decided.

That gave me the opportunity for more breakfast: some oatmeal and that 2d cup of coffee!

We continued to feed the fire for another hour or so, chatted, read a bit. Around 10:30 we celebrated Mass, using the shelf of the other fireplace as our altar.

Then we packed up. As we were finishing that, a day hiker approached cautiously, not wanting to disturb us. I called out a welcome, and she came up, a middle-aged woman (apparently), named Amy. She was obviously a

The blue-blazed Long Path heads north toward St. John's Church from Big Hill.

veteran of the area and was toting her own firewood! She took advantage of the remains of our fire and soon had a nice little blaze going as we finished our packing and chatted with her.

The only substantial water one has to cross on this stretch of the Long Path is Beaver Pond Creek,
for which the trail maintenance crews have provided a fine little bridge.

At 12:15 we were on the trail back toward our car, which we reached in about 45 minutes without any rest stops along the way (downhill's easier that way!). No other cars at the spot this time.

New Provincial Council Announced

New Provincial Council Announced

On April 7, Fr. Steve Shafran, provincial-elect, announced the appointment of four confreres as provincial councilors for the period 2015-2018.


Fr. Tim Zak

Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, will serve as vice provincial.  He is pastor of Holy Rosary Church in Port Chester, N.Y., and director of the SDB community in Port Chester (which also includes the confreres at Corpus Christi Church), and presumably will continue at least in the latter role.  The archdiocese of New York and the Salesians are in the process of arranging the new configuration of the parishes that will serve the Catholics of Port Chester, part of the archdiocese's huge reorganization of parishes this year.  Fr. Tim will succeed Fr. Steven Dumais, SDB, as vice provincial.

Fr. Dennis Donovan, SDB, was re-appointed as province treasurer, and Fr. Abraham Feliciano, SDB, as a member of the council.  Fr. Abe will continue as the province's delegate for youth ministry.



Fr. Mike Pace (by Fr. Puntino)

Fr. Michael Pace, SDB, pastor of St. Benedict Church in Etobicoke, Ont. (a Toronto suburb), was appointed a councilor.  He will replace Bro. Thomas Dion, SDB, who is stepping down after 12 years on the council. Fr. Mike was province's elected delegate at last year's general chapter, where he maintained a lively blog (of late updated with other events).

One member of the provincial council, Fr. John Serio, still has a year to run on his 3-year term of office.  Fr. John continues as director of Salesian HS in New Rochelle and the province's superintendent of schools.

Bro. Tom will, however, assume the responsibility of delegate for formation for the province, guiding both initial formation (candidacy, novitiate, postnovitiate, practical training, theology, and ongoing formation including annual retreats).  In this he succeeds Fr. John Serio, who held that office in addition to those aforementioned.

Fr. Steve also announced that Fr. John Puntino would continue as the province's delegate for the Salesian Family (liaison with the FMAs, Cooperators, ADMA, and other groups that are part of the SF).

The provincial councilors are nominated by the provincial and appointed by the Rector Major with the consent of his council (the general council in Rome).

The delegates for areas of responsibility are appointed by the provincial and aren't necessarily members of his council.

Easter at the Provincial House

Easter at the Provincial House

"Since Christ accomplished his work of human redemption and of the perfect glorification of God principally through his Paschal Mystery, in which by dying he has destroyed our death, and by rising restored our life, the sacred Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord shines forth as the high point of the entire liturgical year" (Universal Norms of the Roman Calendar, n. 18).

The Easter Triduum ("3 days") begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening and goes through Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday.  For several years it's been our custom at the provincial residence to celebrate the triduum at home, with various priests also going out to celebrate the liturgies at the religious communities and parishes where we provide chaplaincy services.  In a slight change this year, we went away for our quarterly day of recollection on Good Friday and celebrated the day's liturgy at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw.

Here are a few photos of our Holy Thursday Mass and Eucharistic adoration, which didn't include a footwashing ritual.


Fr. Dennis Donovan presided and gave the homily, and most of the priests of the community concelebrated.

From the Holy Thursday Mass until the Easter Vigil Mass, the tabernacle is left completely empty, symbolic of the Lord's passion and burial (physical absence from the community of his disciples).  Extra sacred hosts consecrated at Thursday's Mass are kept aside for Good Friday's liturgy (which does not include Mass) and also for a few hours of adoration on Thursday evening ("stay awake and keep watch with me" until the approximate hour of Jesus' arrest).

We use the front parlor as the place of reservation for the Blessed Sacrament on Thursday evening until about 10:00 p.m.  Then the Sacrament is secreted until it's brought forth for Friday's Communion service (or to be brought to the sick on Friday).

Saturday nite's service begins after sunset with the blessing of a new fire, from which the Easter candle, symbolizing the light of Christ risen from the dead, will be lit.

Weather permitting, we begin on our back porch.

Bro. Kevin Connolly holds the Roman Missal and Fr. Mike Leschinsky
the Easter candle as Fr. Steve lights the candle from the new fire.

Fr. Steve Dumais presided.  He informed us that this was the first time in 37 years as a priest that he'd ever presided at the Easter Vigil, which is really surprising considering that he's been a director in various houses (Tampa, Marrero, Haverstraw, here) for about 25 years.

After a procession into our chapel in the dark, with candles supplying the only light (Christ is the light of the world shining in its darkness), Fr. Mike Leschinsky sang the solemn Easter proclamation, the Exsultet:  "Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven...," or in the older translation (which I like better for this text and find easier to sing when I have to do it), "Rejoice, heavenly powers...."

Fr. Mike did a terrific job with the difficult music, evidently having practiced for a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, the congregation of priests and brothers stands with candles lit (in this photo, those without candles were carrying something, such as incense), extinguishing the candles when we come to the liturgy of the Word, then lighting them again later for the renewal of our baptismal commitment.

Fr. Steve gave the homily.  He and Bro. Kevin had decorated the chapel earlier in the day.

On Easter morning there was another, lower-key Eucharistic celebration for the community.  And several of the priests were out to celebrate Mass for the Ursulines, St. Vincent's Hospital, Willow Towers, and St. Ursula's Parish.

Fr. Mark Hyde and others prepared a splendid Easter dinner (turkey, ham, and much, much more) for us and our guests from Salesian High School, and a former SDB who spends the triduum with us every year.  I didn't take pictures this year, but here's one from 2013.

Homily for Easter Afternoon

Homily for
Easter Afternoon
April 5, 2007
Luke 24: 13-35
St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon

“That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred” (Luke 24: 13).

Supper at Emmaus by Georg Muehlberg
from Christ's Life in Pictures by the Rev. Geo. A. Keith, SJ (1918)

We’d like to know a lot more about this story than St. Luke tells us.  We’d like to know where Emmaus is; scholars haven’t been able to identify it in today’s Israel.  Who was the 2d disciple, the companion of Cleopas?  We can very reasonably suppose it was his wife or perhaps his daughter because St. John identifies “Mary of Clopas” as one of the faithful women who stayed by Jesus’ cross (John 19:25).  If they already knew that “some women from our group … were at the tomb early in the morning and didn’t find his body” but had “reported seeing a vision of angels,” and others had confirmed that the tomb was empty (Luke 24:22-24), why didn’t they believe it or at least stay around for more information?  Didn’t they remember that Jesus had 3 times foretold his death and resurrection?

How long did it take them to walk 7 miles?  At a very good pace on level ground, it would take 2 hours, but Judea’s ground isn’t level by any means, and a normal pace might require 4 hours or more; besides which, people walk more slowly when they’re conversing.  At what point did “Jesus himself draw near and walk with them,” and thus how long was he part of their conversation?  How was it that neither of them recognized the Teacher whose disciples they were, especially if one of them had in fact been at his crucifixion?

Unfortunately, St. Luke seems to have erased his server, and in this life we’ll never know the answers for sure.

St. Luke does tells us what we need to know.  He tells us the Good News, the Gospel:  “The Lord has truly been raised” (24:34) and he’s made known to us “in the breaking of the bread” (24:35).  He tells us that whatever happened to Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures, that Jesus walks with his disciples, and that those whose hearts burn for Jesus will find him.

Cleopas and his wife or friend walk for miles—however many—with Jesus as their companion on the journey.  The purpose of the Son of God’s becoming human was to walk with us and lead us; to be our companion on the way toward eternity.  Jesus always walks with us.  The Good Shepherd, “he guides me in right paths” and “leads me beside restful waters” and “gives me repose in verdant pastures” (Ps 23:1-3).  These 2 travelers don’t start with restful hearts, but Jesus restores their hearts along the way and in fact converts them into evangelizers who can’t wait to tell others they’ve come to know Jesus in a new way (Luke 24:33,35).

Even when I have to traverse a “dark valley,” he is “at my side” (Ps 23:4).  Cleopas and the other disciple surely were in a dark valley:  “we were hoping that [Jesus] would be the one to redeem Israel,” but the rulers crucified him (Luke 24:20-21).  They’re despondent.  Their hopes have been crushed.

When we’re in highly emotional states—from suffering, from grief, from anger, from joy, from giddiness—we seldom recognize God’s presence, seldom see God at work in our lives.  That may explain why Cleopas and companion don’t recognize Jesus.  They can’t see beyond their own immediate state of mind and heart.  I guess that’s a form of self-centeredness, which even in a fairly neutral condition—like this one—blinds us to reality, even to what’s right in front of us.

Jesus teaches them—they come to see this eventually—that their experience, viz., what they saw happening to him and what they heard from the other disciples—can be understood in the light of the Word of God.  Jesus “interprets to them … all the Scriptures” (24:27).  He shows how the Scriptures shine a light on the events they’ve witnessed.  If we bring the Word of God to bear on our own experiences, they take on a different meaning, a deeper meaning; we can see God’s hand in our lives.  Such-and-such has happened to me; I’m feeling in such-and-such a state today—what is God trying to tell me thru this?  What part of Jesus’ story or Israel’s story or the Psalms will help me make sense of what I’m going thru?

“He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.  With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (24:30-31).  In St. Luke’s writings—here in the Gospel and also in the Acts of the Apostles—and in other writings of the 1st Christians, “the breaking of the bread” is the 1st name given to the celebration of the Eucharist.  The formula that Luke uses here, “took, blessed, broke, and gave,” is a Eucharistic formula; which isn’t to say that Jesus was offering Mass for Cleopas and his friend!  But it does recall Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves for a hungry crowd, and his institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.  “In the breaking of bread he was made known to them.”  And we continue to encounter Jesus in person in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist.  He is here at our Mass:  in his Scriptures, in his priest, in his disciples, and shortly, under the signs of bread and wine.  If our eyes are held back from literally recognizing him, our faith does see him in the Blessed Sacrament:  his body and blood, soul and divinity.  As we proclaim at every Mass, how blessed we are to be called to his supper, to come here as his guests, to eat this meal he’s prepared for us—the very same body and blood that walked those miles between Jerusalem and Emmaus, the body and blood now risen and living in eternity, the Jesus who intends to accompany us on our own journey toward eternal life.

 

Homily for Holy Thursday

Homily for
Holy Thursday
April 2, 2015
John 13: 1-15
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, N.R.

“Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.  He loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end” (John 13: 1).

One way of marking out John’s Gospel is by the Passover feasts.  Only in his Gospel do we find 3 Passovers—hence our traditional counting 3 years of his public ministry, which technically would be just a little bit more than 2 years.  At the 1st Passover he goes up to Jerusalem and clears the Temple of the merchants and money-changers; near the 2d he multiplies bread and fish and speaks of his body and blood as our food and drink; and we now come to the 3d.

Last Supper, by Tintoretto

The 3 Synoptic evangelists speak of just one Passover, this last one of Jesus’ life, and here they situate his institution of the Eucharist with its link to his passion and death:  “This is my body, which is given up for you” (Luke 22:19) and “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:28).  John presents a different sort of self-giving of Jesus and a different sacramental sign—having presented the Eucharist to his readers back in ch. 6.  Yet the mention of Passover in John hearkens back to that earlier Passover and its Eucharistic discourse, forming a linguistic link, a reminder to us that the Eucharist remains a form of Jesus’ self-giving, a continuing sign of his “love for his own in the world” until the end of time.

Jesus’ hour has come.  In the last several days our readings have reminded of this, with the decision of the chief priests that he must die (John 11:47-53), Mary of Bethany’s anointing him for his burial (12:1-7), and Jesus’ discourse to Philip and Andrew about his hour having come, the necessity of the grain of wheat dying in the earth, and his being lifted up to draw all people to himself (12:23-25,32-33).  His hour will be both the ultimate expression of his love for “his own” (13:1) and his giving glory to the Father (12:27-28).

“He loved his own in the world,” John says.  In the Gospel’s prolog, John told us how the Word of God entered the world to bring light and life and salvation to whoever would accept the Word and thus become “his.”  The world is a place hostile to God’s Word, but it’s where God’s people are and so is the place where the Word must come in order to lift up those people—from sin and death and Satan’s power to forgiveness, eternal life, and the Father’s glory.  It’s in this real world that Jesus comes to save us thru his flesh and blood, thru his life and death, thru the Church and the sacraments that he has left behind after “passing from this world to the Father.”

“He loved them to the end.”  John likes word-play, and this is an example.  The phrase could be taken or translated in a temporal sense:  “to the end of his life, to his last moments on earth.”  His hour in time has come, and he loves his disciples to the bitter end, right thru his passion, the cross, and his surrender of life with the words “It is finished” (19:30).  It could also be taken or translated in the sense of “without limit, to the utmost, to the nth degree.”  “There’s no greater love than that a man lay down his life for his friend,” as he says to the apostles during this Last Supper (15:13).

Jesus doesn’t express this love by instituting the Eucharist here in John’s Gospel, as we’d expect after reading the Synoptic accounts.  Rather, he becomes the slave of the apostles.  He gives himself in the most menial service, washing their feet.  The one who is the greatest among his disciples is the one who serves the rest; for “the Son of Man didn’t come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many” (cf. Matt 20:27-28).  In that spirit, Popes since Gregory the Great have styled themselves “servant of the servants of God” (or “slave of the slaves of God”), and some of them have given good example of self-giving service.

Washing the disciples' feet
(Bible of Tbilisi)

So are we all challenged to do, in whatever capacity we can.  Jesus, our “teacher and master” (13:13) has given us “a model to follow” (13:15), an example to imitate.  By that he doesn’t mean washing one another’s feet per se, but—you understand very well—attending to one another’s needs, caring for one another, serving one another.  For some, that means just the service of prayer and suffering offered to the Father as our share in Christ’s “hour,” and for others the practical service of attending to the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of our brothers or others of God’s children.  In this context, today might be a good day to express your appreciation for the staff who serve you so diligently here at St. Joseph, perhaps even literally washing those who can’t care for themselves so well anymore.

Simon Peter objects to the Lord’s serving him like a household slave.  Jesus chides him, “Unless I wash you, you’ll have no inheritance with me” (13:8).  In the 2d Eucharistic Prayer we pray that “we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life”; one of my confreres once wondered what the heck that meant.  The 3d Eucharistic Prayer voices a similar idea:  that Christ may obtain for us “an inheritance with [the Father’s] elect,” his chosen ones, his saints.  We aspire to a share in the kingdom of God alongside Christ, the Father’s Only-begotten Son, as children of God thru Christ’s grace; we aspire to inherit the kingdom with him—to be “coheirs” with him and with all God’s “elect,” his chosen ones, his saints.

And Jesus tells Peter that for that to happen, he must wash him—not only Peter, of course, but all of us.  In this hour of his that has come, he’ll wash us with his blood, wash us clean of our sins.  His blood washed us once in Baptism, and it continues to wash us in Penance and the Eucharist.  “As we drink his blood that was poured out for us, we are washed clean,” today’s Preface will proclaim.  “Whoever has bathed needs only to wash, and he’ll be clean all over,” Jesus assures Peter (cf. 13:10).

On this day we celebrate the Lord’s commandment of love, exemplified in his service, his self-giving, to his own; we celebrate the institution of his Eucharist, that self-giving perpetuated as “an everlasting sacrifice,” in the words of the Preface; and we celebrate the institution of the priesthood that enables us, too, to eat Christ’s flesh and drink his blood poured out for us, the priesthood that makes his sacrifice present to us “whenever the memorial of [his] sacrifice is celebrated” so that he might accomplish his redemption also in us (cf. Prayer over the Offerings).

St. Philip Province Celebrates Its "Day"

St. Philip Province Celebrates Its “Day,”
thanks Fr. Tom Dunne for his leadership service

As has been customary in recent decades, the annual spring meeting of the New Rochelle Province’s leadership concluded with the Province Day celebration, held at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange, N.J., on Saturday, March 21. It was the first full day of spring—and, unlike the preceding quarter-day of spring (the evening of March 20), although there was a chill in the air, there wasn’t any snow; in fact, for a while there was glorious sunshine.

Bros. Henry Van der Velden and Bruno Busatto chatting before Mass

This annual Province Day celebration fulfills a mandate of art. 42 of the SDB general regulations: “Once a year let both the local and provincial community, gathered around the director and provincial respectively, celebrate the community feast day as a sign of its fraternal communion and an expression of its gratitude.” The tradition goes back to about 1870 when the past pupils of Don Bosco’s Oratory first got the idea of honoring him on his name’s day (altho they got the date wrong, supposing he’d been named for John the Baptist when, in fact, his patron was John the Apostle—fittingly enuf.)

Frs. Shafran, Dunne, and Dumais at their chairs

Taking part in the Eucharistic celebration in Orange were 67 confreres (46 priests and 21 brothers) and 2 candidates. Fr. Tom Dunne presided, flanked by his successor-elect, Fr. Steve Shafran, and his faithful sidekick for the last 5 years, 8 months, and 21 days (but who’s counting?), Vice Provincial Fr. Steve Dumais. In his comments as Mass began, Fr. Tom drew a chuckle by referring to the twin Steves beside him, and a laugh by counting the 3 months and 9 days before Fr. Shafran will assume office.

Getting more serious, Fr. Tom called the new season and the change in the weather a sign of God’s providence, an illustration of the coming of light and life after our harsh winter.

Jesus on trial (in absentia), and searching for an encounter with God

Taking up the Lenten weekday’s gospel reading (John 7:40-53) as the basis for his homily, Fr. Tom pointed out that Jesus has come to Jerusalem, where he encounters increasing opposition from the religious leaders. They’ve noticed his deeds and his dealings with sinners, and they feel that their power and prestige are being threatened.

Fr. Tom pointed to the courtroom atmosphere of the gospel passage, which includes a pack of prosecutors intent on justifying themselves. There’s a crowd, including the disciples, who are a jury of sorts, asked to choose or to reject Jesus. Jesus, however, isn’t present to defend himself.

Salesian coadjutor and seminarian brothers listening to Fr. Tom

Instead, the guards who’d been sent to arrest him come back empty-handed, offering a defense:  “No one talks like he does.” Afraid of the crowds and affected by his words, they couldn’t bring him in for condemnation. Those words of Jesus are filled with truth and love for people, evoking reconciliation and joy.

Then Nicodemus speaks on behalf of the defendant, asking that Jesus be heard. In his earlier night session with Jesus, he’d gone from (potential) prosecutor to God-seeker. Unlike him, the other leaders are satisfied that they already possess the truth. Nicodemus didn’t understand everything, as evidenced by his dialog with Jesus, but he had experienced a life-changing conversation with Jesus, an encounter with God.

Jesus has been making it clear that no one is excluded from encountering God, from forming a relationship with God, from forgiveness, from salvation.

This Lenten season and the work of the Holy Spirit are calling Salesians today to a conversion like Nicodemus’s, calling us away from the intransigence of the religious leaders. “Do we listen to Jesus’ words in our lives?” Fr. Tom asked.

Priests gathered at Province Day

Fr. Tom cited the words of Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, that what’s missing in the lives of many Salesians is the inner life, a relationship with God such as Nicodemus sought. GC27 urges us to seek the way ahead for ourselves and the Congregation (seek our future) by listening to God.

In his dream at age nine, John Bosco asked how he could do what God asked of him.  “She will show you the way,” the gentleman of his dream told him, pointing to a majestic woman. Over the course of his life and throughout the history of the Congregation, that guidance has been realized.

Finally, Fr. Tom urged the confreres to listen to Jesus, listen to what he has to say, and remain in God’s presence.

Six years of leading and learning from the province

As soon as the liturgical ministers had processed from the sanctuary, Fr. Steve Dumais stepped to the pulpit. He surprised everyone by announcing that the local restaurant at which for many years Province Day festivities have continued after Mass had undergone a change of management, and in the process our reservation had been lost. (So the dismissal at Mass’s end really was a dismissal! Except that Fr. Steve continued speaking for nearly half an hour.)

With Fr. Tom’s six-year term of service about to conclude, and the service of some of the provincial council, Fr. Steve offered some observations about the preceding six years:

-- the young Salesians in formation bring to the province enthusiasm, optimism, joy, and hope;

-- the care that we give to our senior and sick confreres reveals the genuineness of our family spirit;

-- the ministries that we support show the depth of our commitment to the young and the poor;

-- the community is a place where we sustain our relationships;

-- the province leadership have lived up to their serious responsibilities with giftedness and dedication; here he named and paid tribute to the individual councilors who served alongside himself and Fr. Tom during the last six years;

-- meetings and planning are important; here he identified Fr. Tom as a “wonderful planner” and someone who listens readily to all points of view.

Fr. Steve Dumais speaking after Mass

Fr. Steve continued by lauding Fr. Tom as a man who never seems to be worn down in spirit, even if he’s sometimes wearied physically. He’s always been ready to see someone who needs to talk with him, always ready to do what’s needed to be done. He’s lived up to the expectations of what a Salesian provincial should be, a good priest, a faithful Salesian, a good friend.

And 66 confreres and 2 candidates gave Fr. Tom Dunne a standing ovation.

Frs. Mike Leschinsky, Jim Heuser, and Steve Shafran catching up with each other's lives--
or Frs. Mike and Jim probing the incoming provincial's intentions?

 

Salesians number 15,037 worldwide

Salesians number 15,037 worldwide

The latest statistics of the Salesian Society were published on March 31. They show that on December 31, 2014, there were 15,037 SDBs serving in 131 countries on six continents (all except Antarctica). This shows a 1.7% drop since the previous year.  There are 1,823 houses and 100 other presences in 86 provinces.

The number of SDBs included 426 novices, 2,620 seminarians, 1,742 coadjutors, 18 permanent deacons, 10,231 priests, and 122 bishops.

A year earlier there had been 15,298 SDBs:  445 novices, 2,645 seminarians, 1,758 coadjutors, 18 deacons, 10,308 priests, and 122 bishops.

The published statistics showed the greatest number of SDBs in the Mediterranean Region (France, Italy, the Middle East, Portugal, Spain, and their missions) with 3,213 professed and 21 novices. (This region was created at the 27th General Chapter last year, along with the North-Central Europe Region, when 3 European regions were consolidated into 2. The reason for such consolidations--of regions as well as of provinces--unfortunately is the declining overall number of SDBs in those areas.)

The smallest region was America South Cone (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay) with 1,362 professed and 29 novices.

In between were the regions of

* South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, and their missions), with 2,659 professed and 122 novices;

* North-Central Europe (14 countries) with 2,248 professed and 32 novices;

* Intermerica (18 countries including the U.S. and Canada) with 1,881 professed and 45 novices;

* Africa (43 countries) with 1,469 professed and 114 novices;

* East Asia-Oceania (Australia, Burma, China, Indonesia-Timor, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and their missions) with 1,386 professed and 61 novices.

The Generalate and the Salesian Pontifical University are not part of any region but counted 193 confreres in their communities. Bishops, likewise, are not counted as part of a region.

Numerically, the largest province in the Congregation, by far, was the newly configured Madrid Province (599 men), followed by Piedmont-Valle d’Aosta (496). (In the last year Spain’s six provinces were consolidated into two.) Hungary (34) and Ukraine (38) were the smallest provinces.

In our Interamerica Region, the biggest province was Venezuela with 194 confreres and novices; the smallest was Haiti with 65. The two American provinces counted 166 men (U.S. East and Canada) and 95 (U.S. West).

Of the 122 bishops, 9 are cardinals: 5 of voting age, i.e., younger than 80 (Rodriguez, Amato, Ezzati, Bo, and Sturla) and 4 over 80 (Obando, Zen, Farina, and Bertone).

I haven't seen 2014 (or even 2013) statistics for other orders and congregations, but based on the figures published for Dec. 31, 2012, (Catholic Almanac 2014), the SDBs would remain the 2d largest order/congregation of men in the Catholic Church.