Bro. Gerald D. Meegan, SDB (1942-2021)

Bro. Gerald D. Meegan, SDB (1942-2021)

Bro. Gerald Dominic Meegan, SDB, died suddenly on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 19, in the Salesian residence at Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa, apparently having suffered a heart attack. He was 79 years old and had been a professed Salesian brother for 61 years.

At the province’s jubilees celebration in 2010

Bro. Jerry was a talented educator, director of youth ministry for the St. Petersburg Diocese, moderator of the 2007 provincial chapter, guide to Salesian Cooperators, and friend and mentor to innumerable people. He played a large role in the New Rochelle Province in reshaping the image of the coadjutor brother.

Gerald Meegan, son of John and Catherine Kesar Meegan, was born in Teaneck, N.J., on Jan. 27, 1942, with the given middle name Richard. He was born into God’s grace on March 29 that year at St. Matthew Church in Ridgefield, N.J., and confirmed there as well in 1953.

The family resided in Palisades Park, N.J., in 1955 when 13-year-old Jerry enrolled at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, which was both an aspirantate for future coadjutor brothers and a trade school for day students. Jerry pursued commercial art while taking the standard college prep courses. But as his 4 years were ending, he later recounted, “I was attracted to the brothers and decided in my senior year to become a brother, mainly because of my interest in working with young people and helping people.

Salesian Vocation

Following his graduation (as Gerald Richard Meegan), he entered St. Joseph Novitiate in Newton, N.J., on Sept. 7, 1959. The master of novices was Fr. Aloysius Bianchi, and among the 63 novices (at the time of the report submitted to Turin) were also Bob Bauer, Mike Brinkman, Paul Cossette, John Grinsell, and Jerry Harasym.

The novices admitted to profession made their commitment at the novitiate on September 8, 1960. Following the Salesian custom of the time, he took a profession name, Dominic. Unlike most of his confreres, he actually used it henceforth as his middle name. Bro. Jerry made his perpetual profession at Mount Mongola in Ellenville, N.Y., on Sept. 3, 1966, at the end of his annual retreat.

Newly-professed Bro. Jerry was assigned for postnovitiate formation to the coadjutors’ training community at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, where he assisted the aspirants. The following year, 1961, the aspirantates were re-located: clerical students from Don Bosco Juniorate at Haverstraw, N.Y., to Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, N.Y., the coadjutors to the renamed Don Bosco Technical Institute at Haverstraw.

Bro. Jerry moved with the coadjutor aspirants and continued his own formation as well as his assistance to them for 3 more years. In that period, some of the staff or fellow trainees were Bros. Oscar Andrejasic, Mario Audero, Bruno Busatto, John Cauda, John Chiabai, Kevin Connolly, Marcel Gauthier, Dan McConnell, Rich Pasaik, Gerard Richard, and John Versaggi.

In 1964 Bro. Jerry moved to the provincial house in New Rochelle, N.Y., and became one of the first coadjutors allowed to pursue academic courses. He studied at Iona College in New Rochelle from 1964 to 1967, earning a bachelor’s degree in education, awarded in June 1968. He followed up his B.A. with an M.S. in education in 1973 from SUNY New Paltz while he was assigned to Goshen. (At both institutions his transcripts and diplomas identify him as Gerald Dominic Meegan, and so do subsequent legal records.)

The Coadjutor Brother

College studies were the first step in Bro. Jerry’s pioneering path in raising the image of the Salesian coadjutor to align better with Don Bosco’s intention, that the brother is the equal of the priest as a member of the Congregation. One former SDB, Bill Moriarty, put it thus: “I remember him as a determined person who helped advance an image change for the coadjutor brothers as religious who did not only the ‘dirty jobs,’ but who excelled in roles in administration and leadership.”

Bro. Jerry took an active interest in the formation of Salesian brothers and was ever ready to remind anyone of their status as religious and sons of Don Bosco. In his footsteps, brothers in the New Rochelle Province serve competently as teachers and administrators, as leaders at local and provincial levels. This has been in sync with similar developments at the world level, including service on the general council of the Salesian Society.

As moderator of the 2007 Provincial Chapter, Bro. Jerry makes a procedural point during a session

guided by Fr. Dennis Donovan. Provincial Fr. Jim Heuser sits next to Bro. Jerry.

Bro. Jerry also took a leading role nationally in promoting and defining the vocation of the religious brother. He helped establish the National Assembly of Religious Brothers (NARB) in 1971 (since 2000, the Religious Brothers Conference), was a member of its first board of directors, served as the organization’s president in 1997-1999, and remained involved for the rest of his life.

Bro. Jerry, 2d row, 2d from right, at the RBC annual conference in San Antonio in 2019.

(Religious Brothers Conference website)

Salesian Formator

College degree attained, Bro. Jerry returned to Don Bosco Technical Institute and the coadjutor aspirants at Haverstraw in 1967-1968. Former SDB brother Alex Tucciarone remembers Jerry as “one of the last coadjutors from DBT Haverstraw. Intelligent, kind-hearted gentleman. Dedicated to his vocation, a role model for students, professional educator, and all-around good guy. I was an aspirant at DBT while Jerry was in formation. His loss will have an impact on all of us who knew him.”

Bro. Jerry moved with the aspirants in 1968 when they transferred to Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, joining the clerical aspirants, and was designated dean of the coadjutor aspirants. He remained on the teaching staff and house council there until 1974. His major teaching field was social studies, in which he was certified in both New York and Massachusetts, but he also taught some drafting and art. From 1972 to 1974 he was also the province’s vocation director.

With Salesian Junior Seminary’s Class of 1969. (New Rochelle Province Archives)

Two aspirants from his time in Goshen, future master educators, recall him as a superb teacher. Kevin Hutchinson wrote, “I had Jerry in Goshen as an inspiring teacher and [later, as a Salesian brother] taught with him in Boston, where he was a wonderful mentor as principal … many fond memories.” Paul Zaccagnino, later a longtime teacher at Salesian in New Rochelle, wrote: “He came to Goshen my senior year along with the coadjutor aspirants from Haverstraw. He was our very innovative senior history teacher. He quickly became my role model and remained one of my favorite teachers.”

Province Leader

In 1974 Bro. Jerry was sent to Don Bosco Tech in Boston as principal; he served there for 6 years, attentive to almost every detail of the school’s administration. Then he was principal at Salesian HS, New Rochelle, for 5 years (1980-1985). He remained in New Rochelle at the provincial house until 1997, 3 years as the province’s superintendent of schools (1985-1988) and 12 years as a member of the provincial council as delegate for the Salesian Family and for communications (1985-1997). For a short period in the mid-90s he was acting director of Don Bosco Multimedia.

He took a very active interest in the Salesian Cooperators at various locations. Joe Gast of the Hauppauge, N.Y., center identifies him as “a great friend to the Cooperators!” Jeanie Cahill of the Stony Point, N.Y., center writes: “Bro. Jerry so loved the Cooperators. Denis and I are blessed to have shared so many memories with him. He was our mentor for the Salesian Family days. For our 25th wedding anniversary, he cooked dinner for us at our home. He had a special menu printed up, brought his own pots and pans, dinnerware even including silverware! He was a 4-star chef! Such an amazing friend that after our daughter’s wedding he helped us serve refreshments before we all went to the reception. Recently, we just visited him in Tampa, and he was cooking onion soup and invited us to lunch. So many memories to cherish.”

Lynn Krakaur, also of the Stony Point center, links her memories with Bro. Jerry’s zeal for the young: “I have known Bro. Jerry for many years. He had such a passion for youth! We were able to see him at many youth leadership retreats at the Shrine, when the Cooperators hosted refreshments. He always asked how my mom was doing and assured me of his prayers for my family.”

Youth Minister

From New Rochelle, Bro. Jerry moved back briefly to Haverstraw as coordinator of the Don Bosco Retreat Center (1997-1999). Then he returned to the educational field as director of youth ministry for the diocese of St. Petersburg (1999-2008). He energetically promoted youth ministry programs in parishes. When he undertook this ministry, he told The Florida Catholic: “My philosophy is the Salesian philosophy that youth ministry is a very important part of youth development. It has to be a ministry that accepts the young person where he or she is … and moves them on in such a way that they take an active part in the life of the Church and spiritual development on their own, in their own relationship with Jesus, and in developing a God relationship so that it becomes a foundation for the rest of their life.”

Bro. Jerry with Bro. Travis Gunther in New Rochelle in 2012 following Bro. Travis’s first profession.

He left the youth ministry office to become principal, once again, at St. Petersburg Catholic HS (2008-2010).

Recognized as an accomplished youth minister, he was appointed coordinator of youth ministry (CYM) at Archbishop Shaw HS in Marrero, La., in 2010 and served there for 10 years. In 2020 he was assigned to Cristo Rey Tampa HS as a member of the youth ministry team. He offered encouragement and guidance also to parishioners at Mary Help of Christians, such as Lorraine Anctil: “He had such a happy laugh. My greatest memory is while I was very sick he would send me spiritual messages daily and constantly told me to fight and know God was with me the whole time.”

Many remember Bro. Jerry’s assistance and mentoring as a youth minister. Denise Vedros, a veteran teacher and Cooperator at Shaw, says, “He touched so many lives while at Shaw. I was truly blessed to have him as a mentor and friend.” Lisa Stacy, a teacher and Cooperator from Don Bosco Cristo Rey HS in Takoma Park, Md., paid this tribute: “My heart is saddened to read of the passing of Bro. Jerry. I am confident that God greeted him and said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.’ I know he is walking through the Salesian Garden with Don Bosco with a great smile on his face. Bro. Jerry lived Salesian youth ministry with every breath he took, and the world benefited. I am blessed to have served our young people alongside of such an incredible man and youth minister!”

His reach extended across the continent, as Judy Alvarez from California testifies: “Bro. Jerry was an inspiration and role model for all his colleagues in the NFCYM. I am thankful for the many gifts he brought to ministry with the young Church!”

Tommy Siefring, who is now the CYM at Salesian in New Rochelle, recounts that as a student he “met Bro. Jerry back on my first leadership retreat in 2012. He pushed me to go to confession after I told him I hadn’t gone in years. When I saw him at the Marian Shrine, back in October [2021] for CYM meetings, he remembered my story and asked me if I was still going to confession often. He was such a great Salesian, and his memory and spirit live on in all the lives that he touched.”

A current student at Archbishop Shaw HS, Josh Mitchell, posted this: “My first-ever Salesian retreat [was] an event that changed my life forever. I have Bro. Jerry to thank for this experience. Not only did I begin my journey at Shaw without any religion in my life, [but] I knew hardly anyone on campus. Bro. Jerry was a central figure that believed in me and guided me in my first two years. Without his presence in my life, I may never have been deeply compelled and called to become Catholic. Thank you, Brother Jerry, for all of the support and prayers you have given my family and me over the years.”

Opening a gift at Mary Help of Christians Center’s Christmas party, 

Dec. 9, 2021. (Carolyn Espinosa)

Bro. Jerry is survived by his sister-in-law Barbara Meegan of Daytona Beach, Fla. He was predeceased by his brothers Charles and James.

Funeral Arrangements

Bro. Jerry’s funeral will be celebrated first in Tampa and then at Haverstraw-Stony Point.

At Mary Help of Christians Church in Tampa on Monday, Dec. 27: wake from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. On Tuesday, Dec. 28, funeral Mass at 10:00 a.m.

At the Marian Shrine Chapel in Haverstraw on Wednesday, Dec. 29: wake from 4:00 p.m., followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at 7:00 p.m.

He will be buried in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen on Thursday, Dec. 30, at 10:30 a.m.

Homily for December 22

Homily for December 22, 2021

Collect
Luke 1: 46-56
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

We prayed in the Collect that the fallen human race might merit the company of God’s Only-begotten Son as their Redeemer.

Christ accompanying 2 disciples on the way to Emmaus

(Roelant Roghman)

We, of course, are that fallen race, well aware of our sins.  We’re here because we repent them and desire the company of our Redeemer.

God graciously sent our Redeemer to show his “mercy on those who fear him in every generation” (Luke 1:50), even unto us.  He accompanies us constantly with his mercy.  (Isn’t it wonderful how much our Holy Father emphasizes God’s mercy!)

We can’t “merit” our Redeemer’s company, not on our own.  God’s will to redeem us of itself makes us worthy of grace, worthy of the company of his Son.

His Son becomes our company, the guest of our souls and of our hearts when we celebrate the Eucharist.  He walks in our company thruout the day when we welcome him by prayer and by practicing the presence of God.  His company as our Redeemer also enables us to reveal his mercy, his loving-kindness, to our sisters and to others—sharing his company with them.

We pray on the Last Day to merit the company of our Redeemer; we hope that he’ll address us as his good and true servants, his beloved whom he desires to keep in his company forever, “proclaiming the greatness of the Lord,” of God our Savior (cf. Luke 1:46-47).

Homily for December 21

Homily for December 21

Luke 1: 39-45
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste” (Luke 1: 39).

St. Vaast Altarpiece (Jacques Daret +1470)

Commentators note that Mary “set out in haste.”  We’re not told what her motive was—needing to share with Elizabeth the startling news of her own sudden pregnancy, a desire to accompany her elder kinswoman in her own unexpected pregnancy, now well advanced, “in its 6th month” (1:36), getting out of town while she pondered how to speak to Joseph, or some other reason.  Whatever Mary’s motive, she’s perceived a need to act, and she acts at once—not as we do so often, putting off some responsibility as long as we can, maybe hoping it’ll go away.  Mary shows us a better way to act when we know what we must do—quickly.

Then we notice Elizabeth’s reaction to Mary’s arrival—not only Mary’s but her child’s:  “How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (1:43).  It’s a humble reaction, turned toward the other person in spite of her own marvelous blessing.  It acknowledges something greater than her own blessing now present, to which she must bow in awe.  Do we pause sometimes to marvel at the great things which, other great people whom, God has put along our path?

Then our attention goes to the reaction of the unborn child in Elizabeth’s womb.  He “leaps for joy” (1:41,44).  Luke in fact says it twice.  John exults in the presence of his Lord, like David leaping before the ark of the covenant that he’s leading into Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:14-16).  John teaches us to rejoice that God has come into our lives.

Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Advent

Dec. 19, 2021
Heb 10: 5-10
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Behold, I come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10: 7).

Nativity Window

OL of the Valley Church, Orange, N.J.

The whole Christian world is excitedly preparing for Christmas, our annual memorial and celebration of the birth of our Savior in insignificant little Bethlehem, “too small to be among the clans of Judah” (Mic 5:1).  It’s such a joy-filled time that not even the stiff, sour Puritans of 17th-century England and New England could suppress it.  (They tried to outlaw Christmas, you know.)

But our festival is not without a quiet note, a somber note, a note with something like foreboding.  The “one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old” (Mic 5:1) comes to save us, and he comes to save us by doing God’s will.

The Letter to the Hebrews explains:  “By this ‘will,’ we have been consecrated thru the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10).  Jesus was born in Bethlehem in order to offer himself up for us sinners, offer himself as a sacrifice on the altar of the cross, and by offering himself to take away our sins and consecrate us to God.  His obedience to his Father counteracted Adam’s disobedience and made things right again between humanity and God.    

This doesn’t mean that God the Father willed his Son’s death.  It does mean that the Father willed his Son to invite all men and women, sinners and saints alike, Jew and Gentile alike, to forgiveness and redemption, to consecration in an intimate relationship with the Father.  Such an inclusive invitation had a price for Jesus.  Not everyone welcomes God’s generosity.  They didn’t in 1st-century Israel, just as today we see people who wish to exclude others who are different from themselves.  So Jesus’ self-offering led to the cross; so he offered his body “once for all,” for all of humanity.

Did Jesus have to do his Father’s will?  No, he didn’t.  We celebrate at Christmas that he was born a flesh-and-blood human being, born the son of the Virgin Mary.  “I come to do your will, O God”—but to do the Father’s will by a deliberate choice.  Remember that he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and could have chosen the way of power, pride, and sensuality instead of the way of faithfulness.  Remember that in Gethsemane he prayed to his Father to take away the cup of suffering that was close at hand.  He could have run away.  He could have backed down from preaching what God wanted of him.

Even before he was born, Elizabeth, his mother’s relative, recognized that he was “blessed” (Luke 1:42)—blessed in anticipation of what he would do in obedience to his Father.

At every Mass we pray the Lord’s Prayer, and you probably pray it often during the week.  It’s called the Lord’s Prayer because our Lord Jesus taught it to us.  In it, like Jesus we pray that God’s will be done.  “I come to do your will, O God.”  When we submit ourselves to God’s will, we act like Jesus.  Acting like the Son of God, we become children of God.

So acting, we also act like the Mother of Jesus.  Before she visited her cousin Elizabeth, she accepted God’s plan for her when she told the archangel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me as you say” (Luke 1:38).  Because of her obedience to God’s will, Elizabeth recognizes her as “blessed among women,” blessed because she believed what was spoken to her and accepted it (1:42,45).

Accepting God’s will—“thy will be done”—in our own lives is what brings the blessing of God upon us.  It’s what enables the grace of our Lord Jesus to consecrate us, to make us sacred or holy before God.

If it wasn’t easy for Jesus always to do his Father’s will, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for Mary either—as a frightened teenager or as a mature woman standing under her Son’s cross—just as surely it’s not easy for us always to do the Father’s will in our lives, to accept what he asks of us—in the way of carrying out our personal responsibilities, in the way of suffering, in the way of resisting our own temptations to sensuality, pride, and power.  Living obediently, living faithfully, is the “sacrifice and offering” (Heb 10:5) that God desires of us, as he desired it of his own Son in the flesh.  Following Jesus Christ in our own lives is what gives meaning to Christmas; it’s what will “pour forth” divine “grace into our hearts” so that “we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection” (Collect).

Homily for Memorial of St. John of the Cross

Homily for the Memorial of
St. John of the Cross

Dec. 14, 2021
Matt 21: 28-32
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Jesus’ parable of the 2 sons and the vineyard concerns the reception of his preaching by different people.  When those commonly regarded as the worst of sinners accept him, the Kingdom of God opens for them.  When the “proper” people of society close their minds to him, the Kingdom is closed to them.  Acknowledging our sins, turning to Jesus for mercy, and with his grace attempting a more faithful life are the keys to entering the Kingdom.

In the 16th century many religious were like the 2d son in the parable, professing a “yes” to the Christian life but not living up to their “yes.”  Such scandal was one of the many reasons for the demand to reform the Church that produced both 16th-century Reformations, Protestant and Catholic.

(Francisco de Zurbaran +1664)

John of the Cross is one of the saints of the Catholic Reformation.  He wasn’t a terrible sinner, in the class of the tax collectors and prostitutes of Jesus’ parable, when Teresa of Avila recruited him to reform the male Carmelites of Spain, who had long given up their strict, original way of life.  When John began to reform the order, he suffered terribly, first from those who resisted reform, and later even from those in his own, supposedly reformed branch.  The first group, for instance, on one occasion kidnapped him, kept him in a tiny, dark cell for 9 months, and beat him.  Ambitious and bitter members of the reformed group slandered him and persecuted him, driving him, apparently, to an early death at the age of 49.

John’s suffering induced profound meditation on the cross of Christ, on divine love, and on human response to that love.  His spiritual writings are treasures of Spanish literature and in the last century inspired Fr. Karol Wojtyla’s doctoral dissertation and his own spirituality.

The cross is never far from us, whether in physical suffering or some other anguish.  Suffering also comes in the form of repenting our sins—so enticing to us at times—and recommitting ourselves to our Lord Jesus, to the fervor of our 1st profession, to faithful religious life.  Like John of the Cross, we find in Christ’s cross the way into God’s Kingdom.

Homily for 3d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 12, 2021
Luke 3: 10-18
Collect
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx, N.Y.                                                          

“O God, enable us to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing” (Collect).

So we prayed in the collect of the Mass a few minutes ago.  That theme of joy gives today its name, Gaudete Sunday (“Rejoice Sunday”), from the 1st word of its entrance antiphon, taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians:  “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

Homage to OL of Guadalupe

St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle

That joyful theme is the reason why we lighten Advent’s usual purple hue with rose in our vestments and in the candle for Advent’s 3d week.  The rose color also ties in nicely with the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, usually celebrated on Dec. 12.  One of the 2 great signs of her presence that the Virgin Mary manifested was the abundance of unseasonal roses that St. Juan Diego plucked and brought to the skeptical bishop of Mexico in December 1531.  The other sign was—and remains—the miraculous image of the pregnant, mestizo Virgin Mother imprinted on Juan Diego’s cloak, which pilgrims still view today even tho that cheap woven fabric should have disintegrated centuries ago.  Mary’s message to the oppressed native population of Mexico was one of joy because she and her Son love them deeply and are present to them in their poverty and afflictions.

1,500 years before Mary appeared to Juan Diego, John the Baptist appeared in the Judean wilderness announcing a baptism of repentance to prepare for the coming of the Lord, as we heard last Sunday (Luke 3:1-6).  Today we hear more about John’s message.  His message is a mix of glad tidings, divine demands, and warnings.

Last week’s gospel passage ended, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:6).  This is cause of rejoicing:  “Rejoice in the Lord always.  The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4,5).  Today’s passage concludes, John “preached good news to the people” (3:18).  The good news of God’s salvation is offered to everyone, even to tax collectors—Jews working traitorously for the Roman oppressors—and soldiers, probably rough, unsympathetic servants of King Herod (3:12-14).

On tax collectors, soldiers, and everyone John lays demands of justice:  share your abundance with the poor, don’t cheat or take advantage of people in your business dealings, be honest, don’t be arrogant or overbearing.

More good news:  God’s Mighty One is approaching, viz., the Messiah.  He’ll purify the repentant with the fire of the Holy Spirit (3:16).

But a warning too:  the unrepentant will be burned by that fire, consumed like chaff or the deadwood you might collect on your property.

What does John the Baptism have to say to us?  Do we want to be the wheat that God’s Mighty One will gather into his barn (3:17)?  Do we want to be gifted with the salvation of God that John, 1st, and then Jesus announced?  Then we must repent and confess our sins.  We must ask, like the people who came to John, “What should we do?” (3:10).  We must live as Jesus tells us to:  merciful, forgiving, kind, patient, generous, pure of heart, honest, truthful.  We must pray and read the holy Scriptures, developing a personal relationship with Jesus and with his Father.

In such a relationship, we will “attain the joys of so great a salvation.”  We’ll have cause to “rejoice in the Lord always.”

Homily for Tuesday, Week 2 of Advent

Homily for Tuesday
Week 2 of Advent

Is 40: 1-11
Dec. 7, 2021
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God” (Is 40: 1)

These are the opening words of Handel’s Messiah, introducing that greatest of all oratorios, a musical summary of our redemption.  Handel, of course was quoting the KJV text of Isaiah 40 in that opening segment.  Isaiah 40 is itself an opening segment, the beginning of the 2d part of the Isaian collection we now call 2d Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah.

2d Isaiah, ch. 40-55, is an extended prophecy of Israel’s impending liberation from their exile in Babylon, their 2d exodus thru a wilderness into the Promised Land.  “Proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.  In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!” (40:2,3).

(from www.bible.com/bible/1/ISA.40.4-5.KJV)

Now the Lord thru Isaiah announces to a world bound in servitude yet another liberation, yet another path of the Lord.  Now our servitude isn’t to Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar but to Satan; our liberation is from the guilt of our sins and the damnation they merit.

Jesus Christ has marked out the path thru the wilderness of our human sinfulness, the way of the cross, leading to the new Jerusalem:  “Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!” (40:9).  From God’s holy city on high comes the announcement that “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” (40:5), that our God is at hand to save us—to save us with a shepherd’s tender care (cf. 40:11).

Homily for 2d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 5, 2021
Luke 3: 1-6
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“John went thruout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3: 3).

The Preaching of John the Baptist (Mattia Preti)

When an important dignitary comes to town—a president or a pope—the local government goes to great lengths to prepare:  repairing highways, decorating streets, repainting buildings—to make the visitor welcome and create a favorable impression.  In St. Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist announces a divine infrastructure plan in advance of the coming of the Messiah:  “Prepare the way of the Lord” (3:4).  Roads will be straightened out and leveled, the potholes filled in.  And when the Lord appears, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:6).

This is no fantasy.  This is no myth, like the fantastic stories we read in Greek mythology.  What John the Baptist announces is real.  St. Luke drives this home by setting his account in a specific time that many of his readers would’ve remembered:  when Tiberias was emperor of Rome, when Pontius Pilate governed Judea, when Herod Antipas ruled Galilee, when Annas and Caiaphas were in charge of the temple at Jerusalem and led the priestly class there—all of them men we can read about in history books.  He places John in an identifiable place known to his readers and to countless pilgrims to the Holy Land, the Jordan River.

This is where the salvation of the world became known, its way announced in advance by John.  This is the salvation still being made known as we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Messiah.  John wasn’t announcing his birth but his public appearance to Israel.  Before he appeared, and before we can welcome him personally later this month, John’s listeners and we have work to do:  clearing and repairing and leveling the roads.

The roadwork is, of course, a metaphor.  John “preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  Salvation will take the form of forgiveness; not political liberation from the taxes and other oppressions of Rome but spiritual liberation from Satan’s rule over our hearts and our eternal destiny.

We want to be happy.  We want the weight of guilt, anger, and spiritual filth lifted from us.  We want to be healthy and alive.  We want “the salvation of God.”

John baptizes the people who come to him—washing them clean symbolically with water in the river.  The cleansing, the forgiveness, depends upon repentance.  We’ll hear more of that next Sunday.  People have to be sorry for their wrongdoing and be willing to change their behavior, as John will specify next week to the wealthy, to tax collectors, and to soldiers.  Repentance opens up the road to forgiveness, happiness, and life.

St. Paul issues a similar call to us today in the 2d reading:  “This is my prayer:  that your love may increase ever more,” that you may “discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil 1:9-10).

Advent is one of the times when parishioners are more likely to come to the sacrament of Penance, to confess their sins, to seek the spiritual cleansing of Christ.  Certainly, it’s even better to do that often—but only when our hearts are contrite, when we’re repentant.  That’s when the grace of Christ forgives us and gives us a fresh start—starts us out on a repaired and leveled road.  That’s when we can make Christ welcome, glad that he’s come into our history, and be favored by him.  That’s when he can, in the words of today’s Collect, admit us to his company, the company of God’s holy ones, forever cleansed, healed, and joyful at the banquet of eternal life.

December Message of the Rector Major

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime

“MAY WE ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE SURPRISED BY GOD’S SMILE”

Receive my affectionate greeting friends, readers of various Salesian media, so dear to Don Bosco.

I would like to share with you the message found in the title above, whose author, I must admit, I am not. It was Pope Francis who chose “the smile” as the guiding theme of his Christmas greetings last year to the employees in Vatican City and their families. He chose this theme precisely in a time when a smile is too often missing because humane and respectful behavior is often missing.

(Credit: Liturgical Press)

I reflect very often on the realities that surprise me. Today, let me speak to you of this one: as human beings we are aware that affability, treating others with respect, displaying signs of delicate attention and respect, and sharing expressions of brotherhood, solidarity, and love in all circles of our lives are things that make our hearts swell and give fullness to our lives; yet, as groups of peoples, regions, and nations, we struggle to create communion among people by joining forces in those things that help make us more human.

This reality is not restricted to the great issues of “macropolitics” or “macroeconomics,” which often focus on self-serving interests that are often in conflict with each other. No, it also occurs frequently within families, among siblings, among relatives. We all know that this is the case.

While we do not ignore the presence of this reality in our midst, we know that Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, reminds us that salvation has been given to us and that He has given us this gift so that we may continue to build a world where God, with His love for us, may be ever more present. Of course, sometimes it is obvious that this is difficult for us to do because we have full freedom to make and to unmake, to build and to tear down, to add and to subtract. For this reason, while we are able to make the path to a better humanity, sometimes we seem to take many steps backwards.

Therefore, I invite you this Christmas (albeit still in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic or at least of its threatening presence, even if it is now greatly under control and we have the ability to navigate in the midst of it) not to give up allowing ourselves to be surprised by that smile of God that translates into so many simple things. One beautiful human example is our behavior when in the presence of a baby: we smile automatically so as to elicit his/her smile. In turn, when that smile brightens and spreads over his/her face, it brings out great joy in us, for it is a sign of simplicity in all its beauty and innocence.

“Jesus is the smile of God,” says Pope Francis, “because He came to give us the love of the Father.” Mary and Joseph received His message, for they recognized in His smiles God’s mercy to them and to all those who were waiting for the Messiah.

And we, too, now during this Christmas season, can feel the presence of Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, smiling upon us and upon the poor of the earth, upon all those who hope for salvation, who hope for a more fraternal world—one in which war and violence cease and where every man and every woman can live with the dignity that is theirs as a son or a daughter of God.

A carpet at Valdocco

Now I wish to share with you something that I myself witnessed a few weeks ago and touched my heart, filling it with a serene peace. You will understand immediately why. I was in Valdocco at three in the afternoon, passing through the courtyard when something or, better, someone attracted my attention. I focused my attention and saw that a young person was standing in the small portico under Don Bosco’s rooms. He was praying. I saw that it was a Muslim who had laid his carpet on the ground, directed toward Mecca, and was kneeling and standing up, offering up his prayers according to his religion. He was communicating not with “His God,” but with the one God, in the way and manner that his religion expresses it. He was very focused on his prayer, and he cared little who passed or not, and surely he did not realize that I was contemplating him, for I did so without disturbing him and with great respect.

I had just left the Pinardi chapel—through the grace of God’s Providence—where the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord Jesus present in the Eucharist, is exposed throughout the day. I thought it was beautiful that Valdocco and the portico where Don Bosco had stood so many times with his boys and where they had prayed was the same portico that now received and gave a home to the prayer of that young Muslim. God’s smile is a smile shining on all His sons and daughters of our world. We are all the fruit of His love and His Creation.

Like this portico in Valdocco, the Salesian houses of all the Congregations of our Salesian Family throughout the world welcome tens of thousands of boys, girls, and young adults every day. There, in these houses, they prepare themselves for life, grow in humanity and in faith, certainly living and expressing their families’, tribes’, or ethnicities’ religion, but always as sons and daughters of the one and only God.

It is for this reason, my dear friends, that I am sending you my Christmas greetings, laden with all the humanity and faith of which I am capable. I continue to invite you and so many others to continue to be people who believe that the world needs our small contribution toward building a humanity that is ever more in conformity with God’s vision of us.

I wish you a Holy Christmas, with Pope Francis’ own greeting:

“Take this wish to your loved ones at home, especially the sick and elderly: may they feel the caress of your smile. Every smile is a caress. To smile is to caress—to caress with the heart and with the soul. And let’s remain united in prayer.”

May God bless you, and may you have a holy and beautiful Christmas.

Fr. Angel

St. Patrick's Cathedral, 2019

1935 Don Bosco Film Returns to Light

1935 Don Bosco Film Returns to Light

(ANS – Turin – December 1, 2021) – As part of the 39th Turin Film Festival, the Experimental Center of Cinematography-National Cinema Impresa Archive and Salesian Headquarters presented the digitally restored version of the feature film Don Bosco, directed in 1935 by Goffredo Alessandrini and produced by Riccardo Gualino for the nascent Lux Film. The religious film tells the life of the Piedmontese saint from his childhood in the Monferrato countryside up to his seminary days. It also presents the educational and social activity carried out in Turin with the children of the humblest of the social strata to the foundation of the Salesian work leading up to his canonization.

In the era of digital films, the restoration of old films remains the last opportunity literally to handle those long strips of celluloid that have made generations of spectators dream. It is super-specialized work, which only film libraries and archives are able to do. The Turin Film Festival has built a section around it titled: “Back to Life,” which this year presents five gems from the past that have indeed been brought back to life. The oldest is Don Bosco, produced in 1935 by Alessandrini when he was in his early thirties. The movie was shot in Turin, Chieri, Monferrato, and the Fert-Microtecnica Studios. To make the film, 40,000 meters of film were used to craft a montage of 2,500 shots. The cost of making the film was over 2 million lire at the time.

The work represents a classic example of a hagiographic genre but enriched with a sophisticated language and skillful solutions. The usage of low-shots to depict the little boy Johnny Bosco, shadows to depict his priestly formation, and panaromic shots to depict scenery – all underline the director’s unique touch. The outdoor shots are particularly interesting! The shots depicting the countryside and the agricultural work in the fields that form the background of the days of the young Johnny Bosco today represent a precious ethnographic source of the territory.

In the first version of Don Bosco, released in April 1935, one year after the canonization of the Saint of Youth, the director, Alessandrini included an “invented” episode from the saint's life in the film. This creative freedom provoked protests and discontent to the point that the scene in question had to be redone, making the action more authentic. The second version, released in the following September, was then followed by a third version. The second was reckoned the popular version and gave rise to a proliferation of variants both in Italy and abroad. After long research, it was decided to reconstruct digitally the second version.

Director Alessandrini speaking about the movie would later say: “In the film, there was only one professional actor. All the others were taken from the street, as they say. But the priests were authentic Salesians, who made themselves available. I was also so interested in the places where we filmed. I remember certain convents like that of Chieri. And I still remember that that winter of Turin which had turned it a snow-white city, but with the sun and a blue sky.”

“The really beautiful parts are the nature scenes,” confirms Sergio Toffetti of the Archivio Nazionale Cinema d'Impresa (National Cinema Archives Company). “They are shot in a very evocative, contrasting, almost Macchiaioli-style black and white. John Bosco is played by Gianpaolo Rosmino, a supporting actor in many silent films, such as Ma l'amor mio non muore (“My Love Never Dies”). Up to that time, Alessandrini had only made two comedies, whereas he would later direct very beautiful films such as Luciano Serra pilota, Giarabub and Noi vivi. Today he is a somewhat a forgotten director, and for this very reason the screening of his Don Bosco is an excellent opportunity to re-evaluate him and learn about his cinematographic history.”

The reconstruction, digitization, and image-cleaning operations were carried out for the National Cinema Archives Company by Ilaria Magni, Diego Pozzato, and manager Elena Testa. The restoration began with the negative conserved in the Fondo Salesiani (Salesian Sources) deposited by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Ivrea in 2016. While the second part of the copy was perfectly preserved, the first part had suffered a quality loss, and was reconstructed thanks to a positive copy from the Film Library of Bologna and a positive copy from the National Cinema Museum and the two 16mm copies kept in Ivrea. For the second half, on the other hand, the original negatives from the Salesian collection conserved in Ivrea was used almost entirely, except for the “Generala” scene, which was reconstructed with the positive copies and for which it was essential to use as a sound reference a copy preserved at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, N.Y., the oldest museum in the world dedicated to photography and one of the oldest film archives in the world.

The film is part of the Salesian Congregation's “film archive” setup in 2016 at the CSC-Archivio nazionale cinema impresa (CSC National Cinema Archives Company), consisting of around 500 films that offer valuable documentation of the presence of the Salesians in many countries around the world. This collaboration had already led to the identification and recovery of little-known or unknown titles such as I 26 martiri del Giappone (“The 26 Japanese Martyrs”), a film directed in 1931 by Tomiyasu Ikeda, on the persecution and martyrdom of Christians in the Tokugawa era; and I conquistatori d'anime (“The Conquerors of Souls”) directed by Renzo Chiosso and Felice Minotti.

Homily for 1st Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
1st Sunday of Advent

Nov. 28, 2021
Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21: 36).

Today’s gospel sounds like a text for the Exercise for a Happy Death.

The Last Judgment (Hans Memling)

In the last 2 weeks of Ordinary Time and on this 1st Sunday of Advent, the Church’s Scripture readings and prayers turn our eyes toward the end of history, to the 2d coming of Christ, and toward the final judgment on all human beings.

Today Jesus—speaking to his disciples and therefore also to us—advises us to remain constantly vigilant, always on the alert.  Living as his followers, we can’t let up our guard, just as an Army sentry must always stay awake.  You know that when you’re on a diet because you have to lose weight or control your blood sugar, you can ease up a tiny bit now and then and have a sweet dessert, for example.  But it’s not so with our adherence to Christ.  We have to stick to him—to fasting from sin.

While we don’t know when history will end and the universal judgment will take place, we do know that our personal history will end and our personal judgment will take place.  “Be vigilant at all times” means we have to live in God’s grace.  It’s part of the Good News that Jesus tells us, “Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” (21:28).

He urges us to pray to have strength to escape tribulations.  The strength we need comes from God, the tribulations from this world.  Trials and pain and terrible events like violence, political oppression, natural disasters, and illness tempt many to despair and could affect us too.  These are tribulations.  May God deliver us!  We pray for that in the Our Father:  “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”; and in one of the prayers following the Our Father at Mass.

Even “the anxieties of daily life” (21:34) may endanger our relationship with Christ, e.g., if we become more concerned about schedules, meals, books, even our health, than about prayer and practicing the virtues of daily life.

Jesus speaks to the disciples about signs that the nations will find dismaying and perplexing (21:25).  There’s only one sign we disciples need concern ourselves with:  the sign of the cross.  It means our redemption is accomplished.

Homily for Thanksgiving Day

Homily for Thanksgiving Day

Nov. 25, 2021
1 Cor 1: 3-9
Ps 138: 1-5
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace bestowed on you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1: 4).

Paul begins his thanksgiving to God with gratitude for the gifts of grace given to his friends in Corinth.  He’s grateful for others.  We could say that what God has given to his friends is also a gift to Paul himself.

In our turn, we may be grateful to God for the brothers he’s given to us.  Isn’t it a privilege to live in a religious community?  Certainly I’ve been graced to live in the company of saints.  Not every man with whom I’ve lived in community, to be sure, but many.  I suppose it must be the same with you.  Thanks be to God for his saints!

Thru such brothers, thru our families, thru our students, and thru friends we’ve been “enriched in every way” (1:5), with spiritual gifts coming to us from God (1:7).  Because of the gifts of our brothers and of so many other people, we thank God for his “faithfulness and love” (Ps 138:2).  We thank him “in the presence of the angels” (138:1) and of the entire heavenly court.  We come into the Lord’s temple (138:2), this holy place, which represents the house of God above.

Our brothers, our families and friends, and our vocation to worship God personally and in community are signs of God’s “kindness and truth” (138:2).  It’s kindness of the Lord to welcome us into his house, into his family, and to give us the firm hope of a place at the heavenly banquet.  It’s truth that God answers those who call upon him, whether our call is a voice of praise or a call for God’s strength to bolster us (138:2).  We’re grateful to the Lord for “hearing the words of our mouth” (138:1).

With the strength the Lord gives us, we trust that he’ll keep us all “firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:8), when our “fellowship with his Son” (1:9) will be ratified and made permanent.  Thanks be to God!

Homily for Wednesday, 34th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Wednesday
34th Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 24, 2021
Dan 5: 1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28
Intended for Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

(source unknown)

“I have heard that the Spirit of God is in you” (Dan 5: 14).

One of the themes of the Book of Daniel is that wisdom comes from God.  Thus on several occasions—like yesterday’s 1st reading—Daniel, faithful servant of the true God, is able to interpret mysteries that the wise men of Babylon cannot.  If we want to interpret our lives rightly, we must interpret them in the light of God’s word, in the light of Jesus Christ, in the light of the authentic charism of our religious family.

We speak of “reading the handwriting on the wall,” meaning seeing some unfortunate event impending.  We don’t need divine handwriting to know, as Daniel says, that our life breath is in God’s hands and our lives ought to glorify him (5:23).

Jesus has told us that the hairs of our heads are numbered (Luke 12:7), which is probably more serious than the numbering of Belshazzar’s kingdom and its weighing (Dan 5:26-27).  Our lives may not be weighty as human beings measure them.  All that matters is that God counts them valuable, so valuable that “not a hair on our heads will be destroyed, and by our perseverance we secure our lives” (Luke 21:18-19)—or, more precisely, God secures them.  In truth, we count on it!

 

Homily for Tuesday, 34th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
34th Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 23, 2021
Dan 2: 31-45
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“This was the dream; the interpretation we shall also give in the king’s presence” (Dan 2: 36).

Daniel & Nebuchadnezzar (Mattia Preti)

One of the themes of the Book of Daniel is that wisdom comes from God.  Thus on several occasions—another will be tomorrow’s 1st reading—Daniel, faithful servant of the true God, is able to interpret mysteries that the wise men of Babylon cannot.  If we want to interpret our lives rightly, we must interpret them in the light of God’s word, in the light of Jesus Christ, in the light of the authentic charism of our religious family.

This particular dream speaks of the decline and fall of kingdoms and the victory of “the God of heaven” (2:37).  We can interpret it, as most commentators do, in view of the Middle Eastern regimes that ruled Israel between the Babylonian Empire and the kingdom of Syria, up to the time of the Maccabean revolt, inspiring hope for Israel’s deliverance—the context in which Daniel was written.

In our time we can also discern that no kingdom, no empire (“The sun never sets on the British Empire”—hah!), not even a great republic, is eternal.  None of our lives and our plans has permanence.  Only “the God of heaven” is eternal and "stands forever" (2:44).  So in all our planning, all our endeavors, all our hopes, all our difficulties, we look to him—our one sure hope for deliverance and eternal life.