Homily for 3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 23, 2022
Collect
Neh 8: 2-6, 8-10
Psalm 19: 8-10, 15
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Almighty ever-living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure” (Collect).

The Church’s prayers often ask God’s help that we might lead holy lives, that we might think, speak, act, and even feel according to God’s desires.  So it is in our Collect today, in which we ask God to direct or guide or lead our actions.

Often we may believe that we speak or act virtuously because of our own innate goodness.  Not so, according to Christian teaching.  When we speak, act, even think virtuously, it’s because God’s grace is at work in us, and we respond to that grace.  If we are good, it’s by the grace of God.

Back in the 1960s—some of you may be old enuf to remember the 60s—comedian Flip Wilson (whom you can find on YouTube) had a famous catchphrase to explain all kinds of bad human behavior:  “The devil made me do it.”  We all know, of course, that the Devil can tempt us, but it takes our own decision to go along with whatever the Devil proposes.  Sin is our own choice.

And the opposite:  God prompts us to do something good, to respond with patience rather than anger when we’re offended, to help someone rather than to turn away.  God prompts us, and that’s grace.  God offers us the necessary strength or courage to act, and that’s grace.  And we agree to act; we listen to God; we follow his prompting.  That’s virtue.

When we respond to God’s grace in our hearts, when we allow him to “direct our actions according to his good pleasure,” then we “abound in good works,” then we behave virtuously.

Ezra Reads the Law to the People (Gustave Dore')

In our 1st reading today, from the Book of Nehemiah, we hear how the Jews received the law of God as it was read to them by Ezra the scribe.  The Jews had been exiled in Babylon early in the 6th century B.C., punished for the nation’s idolatry, oppression of the poor, sexual infidelity, violation of the Sabbath, and other sins.  70 and more years later, God allowed many of them to return to Jerusalem, and they were eager to please him, to do what he commands.  In ancient Israel there were no books, just a few handwritten copies of the Scriptures kept in scrolls; very few people knew how to read.  Educated scribes like Ezra had to do things like keep public records, draw up contracts—and read and explain Torah and the other sacred books.  Eager to please God, the people rejoiced to hear Ezra read the Torah to them and explain it.  “And all the people listened attentively to the book of the law” (Neh 8:3). 

We heard in the Responsorial Psalm that the Lord’s words are spirit and life; the law of the Lord refreshes the soul (Ps 19:8).  That’s true for us, as well, not only for the Jewish people of the Old Testament.  “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” (19:9).  The “good pleasure” of God that the Collect speaks of is also our good pleasure, our joy.  Why?  Because God created us in his own image!  When we act virtuously, we’re acting according to our authentic nature as creatures of God.  When we act virtuously, we’re acting like the most perfect human being, Jesus Christ.  We can do that with God’s help, given to us by grace.  And it rejoices our hearts.

Sin, on the other hand, may give us immediate satisfaction; but that doesn’t last long.  It passes away like an addict’s high.  In the long run, sin leaves us empty, unhappy, with a sour taste in our mouths—whether our sin consists of deception, theft, sexual misconduct, seeking vengeance, arrogance, abusive words, or anything like that.

Joy comes from doing good, from speaking well, from humility, patience, kindness, self-restraint.  Amid the temptations and challenges of our daily lives, we certainly need God’s help to be virtuous.  And so we pray today that God “direct our actions according to his good pleasure that we may abound in good works” like his Son Jesus.

Homily for 2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 16, 2022
John 2: 1-11
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“His disciples began to believe in him” (John 2: 11).

An ancient fragment depicting the Cana "sign."

According to John’s Gospel, Jesus has started to assemble his disciples.  At this point they include Andrew and Simon, Philip and Nathanael, the 4 whom St. John identifies in his 1st chapter.  They’ve joined him because John the Baptist pointed him out as the Lamb of God (1:36), because they’ve spent time in deep conversation with him (1:39), and because he’s read their souls somehow (1:47-48).

But accompanying Jesus isn’t the same thing as being committed to him, just as coming to church isn’t the same thing as being committed to him.  (Of course, if we are committed to him, we do come to church unless there’s a serious reason why we can’t.)

So when the disciples witness this 1st of his “signs”—the term that John uses instead of miracles because we’re meant to look beyond external appearances to what’s being signified—John says they “began to believe in him.”  Their belief, their commitment, is just beginning.  As we see thruout the 4 gospels, the faith of the apostles will have a lot of growing to do.

The apostles will bicker among themselves constantly about their own importance (they’re like kids in the back seat of the car).  They’ll marvel at what he does without grasping who he is.  They won’t understand him when he talks about the cross.  Many of his followers will leave him when he speaks of his body and blood—the Eucharist—as food and drink for eternal life (John 6).  Judas, keeper of their common funds, will steal from them (John 12:6) and then sell Jesus for money.  When Jesus is arrested, most of them will flee, and Peter will deny him.  After his resurrection, they’ll be very slow to believe.

So, yes, after he changed water into wine at Cana, his disciples were barely beginning to believe in him and to commit their lives to him.

Brothers and sisters, we’re pretty much the same as those 1st disciples.  For most of us, our faith in Jesus and our commitment to him is a long, slow process.  It begins with our Baptism, progresses thru 1st Communion and Confirmation and religious instruction, and is challenged often by temptations and falls, by unhappy events in our lives, by experiences of the cross, by the scandalous behavior of other Christians (even priests), and by the skepticism of the world.  Our faith has ups and downs.  As some penitents have confessed to me, “Father, sometimes I have doubts.”

Doubting is not a sin.  Only refusing to seek truth and goodness and to follow where they lead us is sinful.  In the 11th century the great theologian St. Anselm defined theology as “faith seeking understanding.”  So we ought to be asking questions about God and God’s doings, and seeking answers, seeking deeper knowledge, beginning to believe.

What might we try to understand and to believe about what Jesus does in today’s gospel of the wedding at Cana?  We can see that Jesus values a wedding celebration; he thinks it’s important enuf to rescue from a social disaster.  Behind the celebration is a marriage.  Marriage is sacred.  In Catholicism, we call it a sacrament, a sign with a deep meaning.  In today’s 1st reading, the prophet Isaiah compares the relationship between Israel and God to marriage:  “As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you” (62:5).  St. Paul also speaks of Christ as the bridegroom of the Church, the Church as the Lord’s spouse (Eph 5:21-33).  Therefore, marriage is specifically and only between a man and woman, and it’s an unbreakable bond, like the union between Christ and his Church.  As Jesus salvaged the wedding feast at Cana, he salvages us, his beloved people, from the wreckage of our sins.

We can see more in this 1st of Jesus’ signs worked at Cana.  The steward of the celebration tells the bridegroom, “You have kept the good wine until now” (2:10).  Jesus is saving a good wine for us.  In this life we enjoy many good things, and sometimes we suffer some things not at all good.  These are the ordinary wine or the bad wine of life.  But God is preparing for us a much better celebration:  the banquet of eternal life.  At the Last Supper, Jesus told the apostles, “I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:25).  In God’s kingdom, in eternal life, we’ll savor the best that God has to offer, everything to rejoice our hearts, everything to nourish our deepest longings and desires.  God’s keeping good wine for us.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, the Lord turns bread and wine into his own body and blood, and we signify our belief in the future feast where the best wine, Jesus himself, is waiting for us.

Salesian Missions Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Salesian Missions Celebrates 75th Anniversary

(New Rochelle, N.Y. – January 4, 2022) – Beginning this month, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, joyfully celebrates its 75th anniversary – a significant milestone in its long and fruitful partnership with generous friends. Together with its donors and friends, it has helped more than three million children around the world turn their lives around.

Ever since Fr. James O’Loughlen, SDB, established the Salesian Missions office in 1947, with a charter to tell the stories of our global works and rally support for our efforts, it has achieved success after remarkable success, not for themselves, but for the poorest, most disenfranchised, and most vulnerable children and families living in more than 130 countries around the world.

“Those successes are truly countless,” says Fr. Gus Baek, current director of Salesian Missions. “More important, they are individually significant and transformative. Ever since I stepped into this role 3 years ago, I have heard about so many children and adults whose names I will always remember. These very real people are building much brighter futures thanks to the education, training, social support, and other assistance they needed but never could have accessed on their own.”

This startling success started with a visionary director who knew exactly how to harness the potential of the U.S. Postal Service.

That director was Fr. Edward Cappelletti, who assumed directorship of Salesian Missions in 1959. For the next 44 years, Fr. Ed rose each morning with a singular focus: to live selflessly in service to the world’s poor, especially the precious children. To that end, he poured his remarkable creativity, infectious enthusiasm, and ability to motivate others into imagining – and delivering on – a new way of reaching, soliciting, and communicating with potential donors about the Salesian missionaries’ global works. Arguably, those efforts revolutionized the use of direct mail for fundraising and donor communications not only for the Salesians but also for numerous other non-profit projects.

“When you think about it, you realize that Fr. Ed’s ideas were truly visionary for the time,” says Fr. Gus. “But he never let that stop him. It’s not an understatement to say we wouldn’t be where we are today without him.”

Fr. Ed’s ideas included scouring local telephone books for surnames that were likely to be Catholic—and manually collecting the addresses into a mailing list. And so, from a small basement office at the provincial house in New Rochelle, he and 5 typists did exactly that. That list was comprised of thousands of names and grew to include a new segment of Spanish-speaking Catholics identified by cross-referencing local phone books against one from Puerto Rico. In 1972, Salesian Missions moved into a new office building adjacent to the provincial house, built to accommodate the new technologies and processes Fr. Ed adopted to support our fundraising goals. That building, officially dedicated in 2014 to Fr. Ed, remains our headquarters today.

Although he died on November 12, 2013, at the age of 93, Fr. Ed’s indelible legacy continues to inspire Salesian Missions’ work. Led by equally dedicated successors, including Fr. Patrick Diver, Fr. James Marra, Brother Emile Dubé, Fr. Mark Hyde, and now Fr. Gus, the mission office communicates with a multitude of generous donors and partners every day.

Photo credit: Florian Kopp/Salesian Missions

This work continues to respond to help fund the work of nearly 30,000 Salesian missionaries (priests, brothers, and sisters), and has improved the lives and futures of over three million children, in more than 130 countries around the world.

“Together with our friends, we are the torch-bearers keeping Fr. James O’Loughlen’s and Fr. Ed’s flames bright and alive,” concludes Fr. Gus. “I hope you will continue to join me in igniting that passion among even more supporters who will carry it forward into the next 75 years … and beyond.”

Source: Salesian Missions

Homily for Friday, Week 1 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Friday
Week 1 of Ordinary Time

Jan. 14, 2022
1 Sam 8: 4-7, 10-22
Provincial House, New Rochelle

“All the elders of Israel came to Samuel and said to him, ‘Appoint a king over us, as other nations have, to judge us’” (1 Sam 8: 4-5).

(Morgan Picture Bible, c.1250)

On Wednesday, Fr. Joe told us that the will of the superiors isn’t necessarily God’s will.[1]  Today the author of 1 Samuel tells us that having a king to rule Israel isn’t really God’s will:  “the people are rejecting me as their king” (8:7).

Time and again the Israelites have had to be rescued from their enemies by a hero—a “judge”—raised up by God for the occasion.  As Samuel’s life is coming to a close, they decide they want a more stable system of protection and governance:  “Appoint a king over us” like everyone else has.  “We too must be like other nations, with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfare” (8:5,20).

Samuel outlines for the elders of Israel what the kings of the nations are like:  laying on heavy taxes, claiming the best land, impressing soldiers and other servants and valuable livestock.  In the 19th century, Lord Acton aphorized, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Ancient emperors, medieval monarchs, and 20th-century tyrants demonstrate the truth of that.  If half of what we read in 1-2 Kings is true, it wasn’t much different in Israel.  And Samuel didn’t even mention financial and moral corruption.

The Psalmist warns us not to put our trust in princes; trust God alone (146:3).  That was Samuel’s position, as well.

Samuel’s cautions to the Israelites could also be read as cautions to anyone who holds authority, and not only earthly princes.  Pope Francis is always chastising clerical careerists, in the Vatican and elsewhere.  I’m sure we don’t have to look that far afield to take heed of Samuel’s words, to take heed of how we exercise any authority we have as teachers, administrators, or superiors, how we treat the people around us, how we use the “perks” of office, how we use the goods of the community.

In the Gospels, Jesus cautions his disciples against exercising authority like Gentile rulers, lording it over their subjects.  In today’s reading, he shows us how the Son of Man uses his authority:  for the physical and spiritual healing of people—healing which, we might easily overlook, begins in our passage with his “preaching the word to them” (Mark 2:2).  God’s word is the 1st curative in what’s often called “the cure of souls.”  Attending diligently to that word and making it known to others is as much a proper exercise of our authority as Don Bosco’s sons as diligent obedience, chastity, poverty, and amorevolezza.[2]

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[1] Preaching on 1 Sam 3.

[2] Often translated “loving kindness,” which isn’t entirely satisfactory.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 1 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
Week 1 of Ordinary Time

Jan. 11, 2022
1 Sam 1: 9-20
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

“Hannah rose … and presented herself before the Lord” (1 Sam 1: 9).

Yesterday we began a long series of readings from 1-2 Samuel that will take us into the 4th Week of O.T.  We began with Hannah’s misery because she’s childless and thus scorned by society, except her husband, who loves her dearly.

In her misery, Hannah turns to the Lord rather than venting her emotions upon others.  She prays fervently and doesn’t turn to false solutions—in her time, perhaps to the idols of the Canaanites; as the childless in our time might turn to IVF or surrogacy, 2 immoral practices that turn away from God to solve a problem on one’s own terms.

Hannah’s prayer is humble.  She speaks her heartfelt piece to the Lord, then leaves the matter in his hands with a promise, not a demand or a conditional commitment.

The final piece of Hannah’s prayer we might overlook.  Having pleaded with the Lord, she and her husband to their part to cooperate with God, to give the Lord the necessary opportunity to hear her prayer.  You can’t win a lottery if you don’t buy a ticket, and Hannah can’t conceive a son unless she and Elkanah have relations (1:19).

There’s an old adage in Christian life:  pray as if all depends on God, and work as if all depends on you.  Hannah does that, the saints have done that, and it’s valid for us as well.

Commenting on the Comments

Commenting on the Comments

This morning (1/9/22) I discovered a slew of unposted comments "awaiting moderation."  At some time in the past, I'd be notified that there was a comment awaiting moderation, i.e., my OK to post it.  I didn't get any such notices for this "slew of unposted comments."

I went thru them and OK'd most of them, e.g., on the obituaries of Frs. Jeremiah Reen and Jim Naughton, and on some of my homilies.  There were some duplications, of which only one was posted.  There was some that were spam, and they weren't posted.

Homily for Feast of Baptism of the Lord

Homily for the Feast of the
Baptism of the Lord

Jan. 9, 2022
Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx, N.Y.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3: 16).

John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan River and giving fiery sermons.  There was no fire in the river, however; the water he poured over people—or into which he dunked them—was only a symbol.  It symbolized interior repentance and a commitment of the one baptized to turn away from sin and turn toward God.  It did not effect a radical cleansing of the soul.

Such a cleansing awaited the one whose forerunner John was, or his advance agent, we might say today.  “One mightier than I is coming,” John announced.  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:16).

Jesus, too, came to John and was baptized (3:21).  Many people ask why.  Jesus had no sins to repent of.  He was already perfectly in tune with God’s will.  As the heavenly voice proclaimed, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (3:22).

The Fathers of the Church, ancient explainers of our faith, tell us why Jesus was baptized.  For example, St. Maximus of Turin in the 5th century preached:  “Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to purify the waters which he touched.  For when the Savior is washed, all water for our baptism is made clean, purified at its source for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages.”[1]

The grace of Christ’s baptism bestows on us who are baptized in his name the Holy Spirit and fire:  the same Spirit that “descended upon him in bodily form like a dove” (3:22), the same Spirit that descended upon Mary and the apostles on Pentecost in the form of tongues of fire (Acts 2:3).  You and I as baptized Christians are graced with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Pope Francis has stressed that we should remember the day of our Baptism as one of the most important days of our lives.  Not that we who were baptized as infants would remember the experience, any more than we remember being born.  But like our physical birthday, our spiritual birthday merits remembrance, gratitude to God, and celebration.  The Pope urges us to know that day.  I can tell you that the anniversary of my Baptism at St. Barnabas in Bellmore on Long Island comes up in 14 days.

During his preaching, Jesus said that he had come to set the earth on fire, and how eager he was to see that fire kindled (Luke 12:49).  That’s the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire in which we were baptized.  What does that mean?

When I go camping in Harriman State Park, I and my companions love a good campfire.  Fire gives us light and warmth.  It may provide a sense of security amid the darkness.  We might cook over it.

The fire of Jesus Christ kindled in our souls likewise is meant to give light, warmth, and comfort to the world.  Jesus tells us we are the light of the world (Matt 5:14).  Actually, the light, warmth, and comfort are his.  But filled with his Holy Spirit, we bring the world the light, warmth, and comfort of Jesus—by modeling our words, our behavior, and even our thoughts on his.  St. Paul challenges us to have in ourselves the same mind that was in Christ (Phil 2:5):  humility, kindness, generosity, love.  St. Paul’s Letter to Titus reminds us that God’s grace empowers us to “live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age” until the final appearance of Jesus Christ at the end of history (2:12-13).

When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the voice from heaven proclaimed him as God’s beloved Son with whom his Father was well pleased.  When we’re baptized in Christ’s name, we also become God’s beloved daughters and sons.  When we act like Jesus the beloved Son, we remain God’s beloved children, and with Jesus “become heirs in hope of eternal life” (Tit 3:7).

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    [1] Sermon 100, on the Epiphany, LOH 1:612-613.

Fr. Arthur J. Lenti, SDB (1923-2022)

Fr. Arthur J. Lenti, SDB (1923-2022)

Salesian Congregation Has Lost a Giant

(San Francisco Province)

Fr. Arthur J. Lenti, SDB, passed from earthly life into eternity early on the morning of January 6. A member of the Salesian community of Bellflower, Calif., he had been hospitalized in nearby Downey.  Fr. Lenti, affectionately known to his confreres as Arthur or Art, died 25 days short of his 99th birthday. He had been a professed Salesian for 81 years and a priest for 71 years.

Arthur was born at Bassignana in the Alessandria province of Piedmont on Jan. 31, 1923.  His parents were Pietro and Maria.  He attended high school in Penango, Italy.

Arthur entered the Salesian novitiate at Colle Don Bosco, the birthplace of our founder, in 1939 and almost immediately was sent to the U.S.  He entered St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Newton, N.J., on August 15, 1939, and made his first profession there on Sept. 14, 1940.  He spent the rest of his Salesian life as a member of the San Francisco Province.

Since it was the practice at the time that the novices took some college courses, Bro. Arthur graduated from Don Bosco College in June 1943 with a B.A. in philosophy, magna cum laude.  He went to California for practical training (1943-1946) and did at least one year (possibly all three) at St. Francis School in Watsonville. With World War II ended, American Salesians were able to resume theological studies in Italy.  Bro. Arthur was part of a large class of Americans who began their studies at the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum (aka “the Crocetta”) in Turin in 1946.  He earned a licentiate in theology, magna cum laude, in June 1950 and was ordained on July 2, 1950, in the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin.

Fr. Arthur was sent then to the Pontifical Biblical Institute (the Biblicum) in Rome for three years of studies in Scripture.  He came out in June 1953 with another licentiate, this one in Sacred Scripture, again magna cum laude.

Back in California, Fr. Arthur was assigned to the faculty of the Salesian theologate at Aptos, Calif., teaching sacred Scripture.  His particular field was Old Testament, and he was a master of it and an outstanding teacher.  After the closure of that institution in 1960, he received two assignments to Salesian high schools:  Salesian High in Richmond, Calif. (1960-1962) and St. Francis School in Watsonville, Calif. (1962-1967).  He filled the role of “catechist” during some of those years and, of course, teacher.  The Salesian Directory for 1960-1961 also contains the interesting designation of “professor of pastoral institute” at Richmond.

When the Salesians of the 2 U.S. provinces decided to send their students of theology to the Pontifical College Josephinum (PCJ) in Worthington, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus), in 1967, Fr. Arthur was chosen to join the faculty there.  For the next 8 years he taught the 3 Old Testament core courses (Pentateuch and history, prophets, wisdom) as well as elective courses.  He was in high demand not only among the Catholic seminarians but also among the students of the Lutheran and Methodist schools that formed a theological consortium with the PCJ.

In 1975 the San Francisco Province called Fr. Arthur back to California to serve on the theological faculty for the province’s young confreres at Don Bosco Hall in Berkeley (the students enrolled in either the Dominican school or the Jesuit one).  Within a few years the province converted Don Bosco Hall into the Institute of Salesian Studies (1984) for advanced studies in Don Bosco, Salesian history and spirituality, and related courses, open to confreres from all over the English-speaking world for a one-year program.  He and Fr. Mike Ribotta were the heart of the program, joined by a varying team of confreres and FMAs from California and beyond. 

At Berkeley Fr. Arthur demonstrated a depth of knowledge and understanding of Don Bosco that ranks him with such scholars as Fr. Alberto Caviglia, Fr. Pietro Stella, Fr. Francis Desramaut, and Fr. Aldo Giraudo.  He and Fr. Ribotta worked to make the (normally) twice-yearly Journal of Salesian Studies “must reading” throughout the Congregation, publishing learned articles and reviews in every issue.  Fr. Arthur contributed 26 articles in the Journal’s first 15 years.

Fr. Arthur with Fr. Aldo Giraudo in 2008

(San Francisco Province)

Those JSS articles were based on his class lectures as well as his further research.  They gave birth, first, to Don Bosco, His Pope and His Bishop: The Trials of a Founder (Rome: LAS, 2006), which studies the saint's relationships with Pope Pius IX, who was very supportive, and Abp. Lawrence Gastaldi of Turin, who was not; and then to the monumental 7 volumes of Don Bosco: History and Spirit (Rome: LAS, 2007-2010), which has been translated into Italian, Spanish, and other languages.

Fr. Arthur explained: “I call this survey Don Bosco: History and Spirit because Don Bosco’s life and work were played out in the context of the fateful events that created a new religious and political world, and thereby also shaped his thinking and action; ‘Spirit’ because through discernment, interpretation and acceptance he discovered the meaning of this new world and courageously responded to its challenges: his vocation.”

The Spanish Jesuit review Miscelánea Comillas of Comillas Pontifical University spoke highly of the first volume of the Spanish edition of Don Bosco: History and Spirit (eventually completed in 3 volumes).  William Rodriguez Campos, author of the review, recommends Fr. Lenti as a historian who is able to identify the main thread uniting human events, and record them objectively. Fr. Lenti does this in masterly fashion as he presents the life and work of St. John Bosco. “The first two chapters dedicated to a study of the sources and the biographical tradition concerning Don Bosco are jewels of inestimable value for historians, social scientists, and researchers,” Prof. Rodriguez declares.

Using a hermeneutic approach, Fr. Lenti identifies, evaluates, compares, and often corrects documents and interpretation regarding Don Bosco that formerly were considered indisputable. He forcefully and in a definitive manner combats myths and superficial views.  The reviewer concludes: “This is an extraordinary work, full of topics and themes, an excellent and successful effort uniting harmoniously a realistic view of the life and work of Don Bosco and his genuine religious motivation.” (ANS 7/11/2012)

Fr. Arthur also lent his learning to an introduction to the first edition of Dreams, Visions and Prophecies of Don Bosco (1986), edited by Fr. Eugene Brown.  Not happy about how Don Bosco’s dreams, especially the one called “the two columns,” were being misinterpreted and misused in certain circles, he withdrew that introduction from the second printing (2000).

On January 25, 2008, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, a member school of the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, conferred an honorary doctorate on Fr. Arthur in recognition of the outstanding contribution of his scholarly work to the study of the life of Don Bosco, as well as in recognition of Fr. Lenti’s many years of service to the Church and the Salesian Society as an educator and writer. 

At his 95th birthday (2018), Fr. Arthur was feted with a grand party in Los Angeles, including the presentation of “a very special surprise”:  what in academia is often called a festschrift, entitled Arthur Lenti: Memory, Presence and Hope.  It contains a biographical interview with him touching on his vocation and formation as a student of the Bible and as “a Salesian historian, his perspective on Salesian studies, and a number of messages that he offers to all those who share the Salesian mission,” as well as appreciations from various SDBs (ANS 2/13/2018)

Fr. Lenti enjoys his first perusal of the book in his honor. 

To his right is Fr. Tom Prendiville, vice provincial.

(San Francisco Province)

Beyond his scholarship, Fr. Arthur was treasured by countless confreres, students, and friends who appreciated not only his vast learning (in numerous fields beyond Scripture and Salesianity) but also his friendliness, cordiality, and generosity.  Fr. Tim Ploch, one of his students at the PCJ and later his provincial in California, compliments his total dedication to the Word of God and to St. John Bosco and compares him to St. Francis de Sales as a scholar and a gentleman.  The author of this obituary notice was Fr. Arthur’s student at both the PCJ (1974-1975) and Berkeley (1985-1986) and found in him a wonderful friend and mentor.

Homily for Memorial of St. Andre' Bessette

Homily for the Memorial of
St. André Bessette

Jan. 6, 2022
Collect
Luke 4: 14-22
Salesian HS, New Rochelle

Can you imagine a funeral in which a million people took part?  Many people witnessed one when JPII died in 2005.  Another, which none of us witnessed, was that of a humble Holy Cross brother in 1937 in Montreal.

In the gospel today Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor” (Luke 4:18), indicating his mission among us.  That quote also describes well the mission of St. Andre, a brother in the Congregation of the Holy Cross.

In the prayer of the Mass, God is addressed as “friend of the lowly.”  St. Andre was lowly—uneducated, given jobs like receptionist and lighting the lamps in the house (before they had electricity).

But because he was lowly—humble would be another word—but also prayerful, the poor and the sick of Montreal came to him for advice, hundreds of them on many days, for more than 40 years.  Because he had “great devotion to St. Joseph,” God used him to heal many of the sick by his prayers to St. Joseph, and the prayers of the sick themselves.  St. Andre had “a special commitment to the poor and the afflicted”; he brought glad tidings to the poor.

Most of us are going to lead relatively obscure lives.  It’s not likely we’ll be super athletes, important businessmen, powerful politicians.  Bro. Bernie and I will never be Pope—not even bishop, not even provincial!  So in a sense we’re all lowly.

But Bro. Andre shows that we can still do great things by caring for people, which Salesian tries to teach you thru food assistance, midnite run, service projects, and just plain good manners—being polite and sensitive to people around us.  Pope Francis has said more than once that the most important words in family life—or with anyone—are “please,” “thank you,” and “I’m sorry.”  These are some ways that we care greatly for the people in our lives.

And, like Bro. Andre, we pray for people.  Your teachers pray for you.  The Salesians pray for you.  Pray for your families, pray for the sick and the grieving, pray for those who’ve experienced war and natural disasters, pray for refugees and the hungry—and so many others.

Message of the Rector Major for January

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime

 

Two Giants of the Salesian Charism – One Following the Other

Salesian spirituality is strong and stands the test of time because it is firmly united to two unique historical figures in the providential history of the Church: St. Francis de Sales and St. John Bosco.

I wish you a happy New Year, my friends, readers of various Salesian media. May 2022 be happy and blessed!

On Tuesday, December 28, we opened the year of St. Francis de Sales. On that date in 2022, we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of this great saint—a genial and unique saint in his time. Now we are in January and will celebrate his liturgical feast on the 24th of this month. It is because of St. Francis de SALES that we Salesians of Don Bosco bear his name.

One day Don Bosco said to a group of boys who had grown up at his side, “We will call ourselves Salesians.” Thus began this fascinating “adventure in the Spirit” that would give rise to the huge tree that today is the Salesian Family of Don Bosco. This tree sinks its roots deep into this spirituality of St. Francis de Sales and drinks of it daily with the style, practice, and sensitivity of another giant: our own great Don Bosco.

It is for this reason that I speak of two giants of the Salesian charism, with one following the other, because both are great gifts in the Church, and because Don Bosco knew how to translate the charism into the circumstances of his boys’ daily lives like no other. He took the spiritual strength of Francis de Sales and applied it in the education and evangelization of his poor boys. His entire Salesian Family bears the responsibility to keep this gift alive and share it in the Church and in the world today.

So now I want to declare that, symbolically-speaking, both Francis de Sales and John Bosco have had much in common right from the cradle.

Two Saintly Mothers

Francis de Sales was born under the Savoyard sky that crowns valleys crossed by streams which find their origins in the highest peaks of the Alps. His mother, Françoise de Boisy, was very young when she was expecting her first child. One day in Annecy, in front of the Holy Shroud, which spoke to her heart about the passion of God’s beloved Son, she was moved to make a promise: the child in her womb would belong to Jesus forever. As for St. John Bosco, how can we not think of him as a Savoyard? He was not born in a castle, it is true, but he had the same gift as Francis: a mother, sweet and filled with faith. One day, Mama Margaret told her son, John, “When you came into the world, I consecrated you to the Blessed Virgin.” And, in Turin, before this same Shroud, Don Bosco would one day kneel. Christian mothers raise up saints—whether in a castle like Francis or in a ramshackle country house like John.

They say that the first complete sentence Francis managed to formulate was, “The Good Lord and my mother love me very much.”

And the Good Lord did take care of Francis and John. He gave each of them a huge heart. Francis studied in Paris and Padua in the most prestigious universities of the time. John studied by candlelight in the basement of a cafe. But the Spirit does not give up when facing human difficulties. The two were destined to “meet.”

Twelve Grace-filled Months

St. Francis de Sales is one of the figures in history who, with the passage of time, has grown in relevance and significance due to the fruitful expansion of his insights, experiences, and spiritual convictions. Four hundred years after his entrance into heaven, his proposal of Christian living, his method of spiritual accompaniment, and his humanistic vision of the relationship of human beings with God remain fascinating. Don Bosco, like no other, knew how to interpret these.

Throughout this year, several events will enable us to draw closer to the figure of St. Francis de Sales, in tandem with the Salesian spirit through the mysticism Don Bosco experienced at Valdocco. My greeting to you today is a wish for happiness in the new year and an invitation to all the friends of Don Bosco’s charism to savor the profoundly human and spiritual freshness that flows, like a great river: the Salesian spirituality that comes from Francis de Sales through Don Bosco. This river carries within itself a great strength that is found in these “Salesian” thoughts that spring from St. Francis’s own heart and that Don Bosco made his own in his life with his young men:

·       “God, in his grace, never acts without our consent. He acts with strength, not to force or constrain us but, rather, to draw our hearts not to violate our freedom but to fall in love with it.”

·         “God,” as Francis de Sales loved to say, “draws us to himself through his kind initiative, sometimes through a vocation or a call and at other times through the voice of a friend, as an inspiration or an invitation. At still other times, he does so through a ‘prevention,’ for he always acts first. God does not impose himself: he knocks on the door and waits for us to open it to him.”

·         “God is present and makes himself present to each person in those moments of one’s life that God alone chooses and in the way that God alone knows.”

Both Francis de Sales and Don Bosco sought to make everyday life an expression of God’s love, which is both received and reciprocated. Our saints both wanted to bring our relationship with God to our lives and life to our relationship with God. We are speaking here of being “saints next door” or “the middle class of holiness” of which Pope Francis speaks with so much affection:

I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile. In their daily perseverance I see the holiness of the Church militant. Very often it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbors, those who, living in our midst, reflect God’s presence. We might call them "the middle class of holiness."

God does not love us because we are good, but because he is good.

Doing God’s will does not come from feelings of “unworthiness,” but from hope in God’s mercy and goodness. This is Salesian optimism. Francis responds to God’s love with love:

·         “I will love you always, O Lord, at least in this life! At least in this life will I love you, if it is not given me to love you in eternity!... and I will always wait on your mercy.”

Francis de Sales’s crisis reveals the profound depths of his being: a heart in love with God. The conviction that God’s love is not based on feeling good, but on doing the will of God the Father, is the axis of Francis de Sales’s spirituality and should be the guide for Don Bosco’s entire Family.

“Move from the consolations of God to the God of consolations, from enthusiasm toward true love.”

·         “Do everything out of love, nothing out of fear, because it is God’s mercy and not our own merits that moves us to love.”

If St. Augustine said that “our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions, I, 1), following the thought of Francis de Sales we could say with von Balthasar, that “our heart [O God] feels restless until we rest in you, until time and eternity merge, submerged in each other. As Don Bosco wanted: “May love for Christ lead us to love young people! This is an attitude characteristic of our Salesian life and a permanent challenge to Don Bosco’s Family today and always.

·         “Charity is the measure of our prayer, because our love for God is manifested in love for our neighbor.”

·         “In this consists the ‘prayer of life’: in carrying out all one’s activities in love and for the love of God, in such a way that all of life becomes a continuous prayer.”

“ItIt is good for us to find moments to retreat into our own hearts, away from the hustle and bustle and activism, and to speak heart-to-heart with God.”

“ IIn  her (Mary) we see what God is willing to do with one’s love when he finds hearts available like Mary’s. In emptying herself, she receives the fullness of God. Because she remains available to God, he is able to accomplish great things in her.”

Fr. Angel

 

Memorial Mass: Bro. Kevin John Reilly, CFC

Memorial Mass
Bro. Kevin John Reilly, CFC

Jan. 4, 2022
1 John 4: 7-11
John 6: 37-40
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle

(Catholic News Service)

“In this is love:  not that we have loved God, but that he loved us…” (1 John 4: 11).

A great deal of the 1st Letter of St. John is a moral exhortation for Christians to love one another.  John teaches that behind the love we practice is our experience of being loved.

In love the initiative is God’s.  He has loved us 1st, in evidence of which he gave us his only Son to demonstrate the forgiveness of our sins, to empower us with divine grace so that we’ll be able to love—to love God in response, and to love the rest of God’s children, also in response.

John’s Gospel also speaks of God’s initiative:  “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me….  This is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day” (John 6:37,39).

Medieval philosophers taught, “Bonum est diffusivum sui,” goodness diffuses itself, naturally shares itself.  It’s so with God, the ultimate in goodness, God who is love by his very nature, and it becomes so with God’s children when we’ve been given his love.  We can’t contain it if we are truly God’s children.  “Everyone who loves is begotten by God” (4:7).

When we’ve truly entered our religious vocation, this is our experience.  If, perhaps, we came to religious life originally thinking what great things we could do for God, for Edmund Rice, for Don Bosco, we should have quickly been disabused of that idea.  God called us—Kevin John Reilly and all of us—because he loved us and wanted to share his life with us intimately, and then sent us to share his love with others, particularly with the young.

We pray that God’s grace bring our brother Kevin John to the everlasting happiness of his kingdom; that grace continue to fill our hearts and empower us to practice love for our brothers, our staff, our families, our past pupils, everyone.

Homily for Solemnity of Epiphany

Homily for the Solemnity of the Epiphany

Jan. 2, 2022
Matt 2: 1-12
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle
St. Joseph Parish, New Rochelle

“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, … magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews?’” (Matt 2: 1-2).

(Fra Angelico)

In the ancient world, magus (pl. magi) had various meanings:  scholar, wise man, astrologer, wonder-worker, sorcerer.  Our word magic derives from magus.

For sure, the word doesn’t refer to royalty, to a king or a prince.  So these aren’t kings coming from the East looking for Jesus but wise men of some sort.  Matthew doesn’t say how many:  2 or 6 or 10.  The tradition of 3 comes only from the number of their gifts.

One aspect of the story that we can focus on is the reaction of the various participants to Jesus’ birth.  The magi at 1st, mistakenly, think they’re looking for a royal prince and want to pay him homage.  When they in fact find him, they’re overjoyed (2:10), notwithstanding that he’s not at all what they'd expected.  In that, infant Jesus foreshadows his public ministry; for neither then will he be what so many people expected.  The fictional—and somewhat entertaining—expectation of Herod Antipas in Jesus Christ Superstar isn’t so different from that of a lot of real Galileans and Judeans:  “So you are the Christ, the great Jesus Christ!  Prove to me you’re divine—change my water into wine.  Prove to me you’re no fool—walk across my swimming pool.”

Superstar’s Herod sings to his prisoner during Jesus’ passion.  The magi find only an ordinary child of ordinary parents—perhaps a notch above being peasants—living in an ordinary house in humble Bethlehem, practically the least village of Judea (cf. 2:6).  And the magi pay him homage, bestowing on the lowly child extravagant gifts.  Then, “having been warned in a dream” that this child has no connection to King Herod (2:12)—the father of Herod Antipas—the magi prove they are indeed wise men and avoid Herod and his court.  They prove loyal subjects of the little prince they’ve just found and paid homage to by doing their part of protect him.

So that’s one reaction to the birth of Jesus:  seeking, homage, loyalty.

The other reaction is to be “greatly troubled” by the news the magi bear—not only wicked, corrupt, blood-stained Herod, but “all Jerusalem with him” (2:3).  When Herod’s upset, he’s a paranoid menace to everyone, including his own family.  He murdered 3 sons and a wife out of fear they were plotting against him, and it’s reported he ordered the massacre of all the prominent men of Judea upon his death to make sure that his passing would be lamented instead of celebrated.

The 1st to collaborate with Herod are “the chief priests and the scribes” (2:4-6).  Sound familiar?  Stay tuned for the opposition that will rise up against Jesus when he preaches and heals.  Here, the chief priests and scribes are somewhat more passive.  They provide a genuine reading of the prophecy of Micah.  They surmise correctly that the star announces the appearance of the Messiah.  But for them it’s a purely intellectual exercise without practical, personal effect.  They’re like devout Catholic politicians or businessmen who don’t allow their faith to affect their day-to-day political or corporate life.  They don’t head to Bethlehem with the magi to look for the Messiah but hang back in Jerusalem with the powerful and the comfortable.

Herod himself makes a show of piety as he tells the magi that he, too, wishes to pay homage to the newborn king (2:8).  It’s like he’s fingering rosary beads.  As we know, he’s actually planning to eliminate this rival, probably even then gathering and instructing his men-at-arms.  Herod’s reaction to Christ’s birth is fear, jealousy, desperate violence.

Everyone who hears of the birth of Jesus, everyone who hears his Gospel message, is confronted with the same possibilities as the magi, the chief priests and scribes, and King Herod.  I can’t imagine that anyone here reacts to Jesus like the monstrous king of Judea, deliberately shoving him aside, plotting in law against him like the Chinese government or violently assaulting him like people who vandalize churches or kill Christians. 

But we could react to Jesus like the chief priests and scribes—read about him and talk about him but ignore him, not letting him get in the way of whatever it is that we want to busy ourselves with. 

Or like the wise men, we can pursue Christ diligently and pledge our allegiance to him, offering him whatever treasures we have.

Yes, Jesus makes enemies—because he demands our total commitment to goodness, truth, selflessness, and adoration in God’s name.

Salesians of Quetta Distribute Humanitarian Aid to City's Afghan Refugees

Salesians of Quetta distribute humanitarian aid to city’s Afghan refugees

(ANS - Quetta, Pakistan – December 29, 2021) – Thanks to the contribution of Misiones Salesianas of Madrid, the Salesian community of Quetta has offered shelter and basic necessities to the Afghan refugees in the city. The recipients, more than 100 – mostly children – received tents, blankets, food, and medicine. The Christian community of Quetta gathered around the value of solidarity and felt proud to be able selflessly to help people of other religions in a spirit of universal brotherhood. Following this project which aimed to cover an emergency exacerbated by the cold, important forms of assistance are being studied, such as educational provision for children, as well as medical and psychological assistance.