Homily for 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily

for the 17th Sunday

of Ordinary Time(Mission Appeal)
July 25, 2010
Luke 11: 1-13
Gen 18: 20-32
Church of the Holy Spirit, Cortland Manor, N.Y.

You’ve seen in the parish bulletin that this weekend there’s a mission appeal being made, specifically on behalf of the archdiocesan Society for the Propagation of the Faith. That’s why I’m here, altho I’m not a missionary. My usual congregations are the Christian Brothers and Ursuline Sisters in New Rochelle, the patients and staff at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Harrison, the Dominican Sisters in Mt. Vernon—all of whom my Salesian community in New Rochelle ministers to—and the Boy Scouts of the Westchester-Putnam Council, whose chaplain I’m proud to be.

The Salesians of Don Bosco are a great missionary order, with more religious men and women and lay volunteers in missions around the world than any other order today, except maybe the Jesuits. You’ve heard of the Jesuits, right? So we Salesians, who serve in 136 countries—not all of them missionary, of course—are happy to work with the archdiocese of New York to support what the archdiocese does thru the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

Today’s gospel was about prayer, wasn’t it? It had 2 parts. 1st, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. 2d, he taught them—us—that we have to be persistent in our prayer.

The prayer Jesus taught us is the one we call “the Lord’s Prayer” or the Our Father. We’re more familiar with St. Matthew’s slightly different version than with St. Luke’s, but it’s the same prayer: a prayer that God’s name be recognized as holy; that God’s kingdom come—among us, of course; that God provide for us; that God forgive our sins and we forgive others likewise; that God not let us be tested more than our faith can handle.

In the 2 little parables that Jesus uses about persistence in prayer, he compares God to a friend and to a father. But he says God is more than a friend, more than a father.

So what does that gospel have to do with the Society for the Propagation of the Faith? Why should you support the Propagation of the Faith financially or pray for the generous men and women who leave home and family for a parish, a school, a medical clinic in a remote mountain village or a crowded city slum in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands? Because every Christian has an obligation to spread the Gospel, to “carry the light of Christ’s message,” in the words of Pope Benedict XVI.

What’s the purpose of Christian missionary activity? In relation to today’s gospel, Christian missionaries seek to extend the presence of God’s kingdom in the hearts of men and women; to introduce people to God who’s more than a friend, God’s who’s a father and more; to teach them to pray, to approach God confidently in prayer, to reverence him, to trust his goodness, to seek his pardon, to strive to offer pardon to others. Our prayers and financial support help missionaries do that and—apart from the witness that we give to our non-Christian neighbors by our words and deeds—are how we do our part to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Most of us—like St. Therese of Lisieux—won’t go to foreign lands as missionaries. She is the patroness of the foreign missions because she prayed for missionaries.

Christianity and Judaism are the only religions that recognize our Creator, the all-holy God, as a father and friend. Only Christianity teaches that God has become an intimate part of our lives by sharing our human nature—thru the Son of God’s becoming man, thru everyday elements like water, bread, wine, and olive oil that make God present to us in a concrete and real, if mysterious, way. Only Christianity links our readiness to forgive our enemies with God’s readiness to forgive us. Isn’t reconciliation what we all want in the deepest parts of our souls? Isn’t it what the world needs? Don’t we want to be God’s friend rather than a stranger to him? Don’t we want that for every woman and man?

The Bible recognizes that Abraham was a friend of God, using that precise term to describe him (2 Chr 20:7; Is 41:8), altho not in today’s 1st reading (Gen 18:20-32). The Bible also tells us of how Moses used to speak to God face to face, like one man talking to another (Ex 33:11). Isn’t that a beautiful image of a relationship with God? Today’s 1st reading is a continuation of the story we heard last week (18:1-10). There’s Abraham speaking on most familiar terms with God, who in human form has visited him and enjoyed his hospitality. He opens his heart to Abraham, as a friend does. Abraham in turn speaks of his concern and pleads to God, like a friend, with honesty and confidence. Unmentioned in this particular part of the story is that Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family live in Sodom; that’s why Abraham wants God to spare the city. His plea, his bargaining with God if you will, is a model of intercessory prayer—persistent prayer, to use the word that Jesus uses today—a model of the free and open relationship that God wants to have with us, and the relationship that we want every person to have with God.

So the Society for the Propagation of the Faith asks you to pray for missionaries, like St. Therese; to give financial support if you can; to consider becoming a member of the Society; even to think whether you might be able to become a missionary yourself for a year or 2, as so many volunteers do, or for a lifetime, like Jesus’ apostles, like St. Francis Xavier, like Mother Teresa.

745 Years Consecrated to God

745 Years Consecrated to God

It's taken me 2 weeks, unfortunately, to get to posting something on a happy event celebrated on July 11, namely, the annual Jubilee of Profession of the Salesian Sisters.

At Mary Help of Christians Academy's chapel on that Sunday morning Srs. Ann Cassidy, Angela DeCapua, Catherine Hurley, Clare Kennelly, Betty Ann Martinez, and Beatrice Valot celebrated 40 years of religious profession as Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters); Srs. Catherine Altamura, Candide Asselin, Estelle Johnson, Elizabeth Russo, and Mary Anne Zito reached 50 years; Srs. Inez Molano and Catherine Novo, 60 years; Sr. Rosalie Di Peri, 65 years; and Sr. Antonia Cvetko, 70 years! All those years add up to 745 years.

The celebration took place within a Mass presided over by the Salesian provincial, Fr. Tom Dunne, and concelebrated by Salesian Frs. Bill Keane, Frank Wolfram, and Jim Mulloy, and diocesan priest Fr. Brendan Murray from Dover, N.J. As they always do, the FMAs provided marvelous sacred music. As always for their festivals, a large crowd of their families, alumnae, and friends filled the chapel. As always, an excellent meal followed Mass--this time at The Tides of North Haledon.

Led by Sr. Phyllis Neves (far left), superior of the FMAs' Eastern U.S. Province, the jubilarians renewed their vows after the homily.

Fr. Tom's homily, based on the gospel of the day (the parable of the Good Samaritan) was much appreciated. He said that the sisters' answer to the question that the lawyer asked of Jesus--"what must I do to inherit eternal life?"--is their lives of consecration. The Good Samaritan of the parable is an image of the behavior to which all Christians are called: compassion and long-term commitment toward those in need. The witness of these virtues by consecrated religious is essential today for the Christian people--they see the Gospel lived out in the lives of people like our jubilarian sisters.

A happy but unusual aspect of this particular celebration was that it included the jubilees of sisters from all 3 of their U.S. and Canadian provinces. All 3 provincials were present.

Homily for 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily
for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary TimeJuly 18, 2010
Luke 10: 38-42
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle

“Mary sat beside the Lord listening to him” (Luke 10: 39).

The 5 verses of our gospel today come immediately after the parable of the Good Samaritan—as if to say that Martha acts the Good Samaritan toward a weary traveler, Jesus, by offering him hospitality on his journey, by showing him compassion, by providing food and rest and, presumably, good company and good conversation; altho, unfortunately, we’re not told who else was there besides Martha’s sister and, we may be sure, the Twelve; not even Lazarus gets a mention.

Jesus with Mary & Martha, by Tintoretto

I see another link between this passage and last Sunday’s story. Do you remember the lawyer’s opening question? “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (10:25). Think about that for a moment.

What can you do to earn or deserve an inheritance? Nothing, of course. You might do something to merit dis-inheritance. But an inheritance is a freely given gift—like eternal life. Someone preparing his will, I understand, will provide for the payment of his debts and obligations before dispensing his estate to his family, friends, and charities. The debts and obligations, obviously, aren’t part of the inheritance. The heirs—family, friends, and charities—altho they may eventually fight over the outcome, have no input into the testator’s plans. He dispenses what he wants to whom he wants and ignores or even slights whom he wants. Yesterday’s New York Times has a profile of a big benefactor of theological schools who has disinherited his 4 kids, saying, “I don’t want my good fortune to influence their lives.” The reporter doesn’t say what they think about that.[1] But the estate is the testator’s gift to dispose of as he wishes. Someone may think he deserved inclusion, or deserved a bigger share—isn’t that what the lawsuits are usually about?—but in the end the law will ask only was the will properly drawn up, was it the last one prepared by the testator, and was the testator of sound mind when he prepared it; not was he wise or fair in what he decided. If someone was passed over, out of carelessness or out of spite, he can scream “unfair” till the cows come home, but he won’t get a cent.

When God freely offers us eternal life thru the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it isn’t because we deserve it or earn it. We can only say, “Thank you!”—which we do when we celebrate the Eucharist and the Hours and other forms of the sacred liturgy. If we freely and knowingly reject God’s offer, then we’ll get what we deserve for our sins: as Jesus relates in various parables, being “cast into the outer darkness to wail and gnash [our] teeth” (Matt 22:13; 25:30; cf. 8:12), or “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41). It’s no small thing to pray for perseverance and to renew our thanks daily.

How does that relate to today’s gospel? What are the women in the story doing? “Mary sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak,” while Martha “burdened” herself “with much serving” in the kitchen and at the table and with all the chores of hospitality (Luke 10:40). And Jesus chided Martha, gently, but praised Mary for choosing the better part (vv. 41-42). The lesson isn’t about hospitality, really, or good manners—just a couple of weeks ago Jesus faulted Simon the Pharisee for his bad manners, after all (Luke 7:44), and in our 1st reading today Abraham quite properly offers hospitality to the strangers who show up at his camp (Gen 18:1-8). Nor is it an encouragement to sit around yakking with our buds while there’s work to be done.

At a deeper level than just what’s happening in the story, at the level of a gospel teaching, Mary is doing nothing but accepting the word of the Lord while Martha’s working herself into an “anxious and worried” frenzy (v. 41) and missing the word of the Lord. Martha’s “earning” the Lord’s good will while Mary’s accepting it. And we can’t “earn” the Lord’s good will—grace, salvation—we can only accept it. Mary’s better part is the freely offered friendship of Jesus indicated by her physical proximity, sitting at his feet. What an image of heaven!

Of course we can’t take these 5 verses in isolation from the rest of the Gospel. We can’t sit in our rooms or the chapel all day meditating on the word of God while ignoring the chores that have to be done in the house, the apostolic ministry that has to be done to spread the word, the practice of charity (being a neighbor like the Good Samaritan). But we do have to keep all our deeds in proper perspective, the perspective offered by Jesus in the little parable of the “unworthy servant”: “When you’ve done all that you’ve been commanded, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we’ve only done our duty’” (Luke 17:10)—the perspective demonstrated by Martha in the kitchen and Mary at the Lord’s feet.

[1] Mark Oppenheimer, “From One Benefactor, Diverse Seeds in Theology,” NYT, July 17, 2010, p. A12.

Fr. Jonathan Parks, SDB (1949-2010)

Fr. Jonathan Parks, SDB (1949-2010)
Fr. Jonathan D. Parks, SDB, pastor of St. Rosalie Catholic Church in Harvey, La., since 2004, died this morning at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La., after a months-long illness. He was 60.

As pastor of St. Rosalie, Fr. Jon loved to bring in statues of Salesian saints. In 2006 he had Bp. Emilio Allue, SDB, come down from Boston to bless a new statue of Don Bosco.

Jon was born in New Orleans on Sept. 26, 1949, and raised in Gretna, across the Mississippi River from the Crescent City. He met the Salesians when he attended Archbishop Shaw HS in Marrero, where he was in the second graduating class (1967). Strongly influenced by the SDBs who taught him, especially Fr. Paul Avallone, he entered Don Bosco Seminary in Newton, N.J., where he professed his first vows as a Salesian on Aug. 15, 1969. After graduation from from Don Bosco College in Newton in 1972, Bro. Jon assigned to teach U.S. history and religion at Archbishop Shaw HS for two years.

In 1974 he enrolled in the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, for theological studies. He earned an M.Div. and was ordained to the priesthood on May 19, 1978, in Columbus—part of a class of 10 that included your humble blogger. After ordination Fr. Jon served young people and the Salesians as a teacher and school administrator in Cedar Lake, Ind. (1978-1979), Ramsey, N.J. (1979-1980, 1988-1990), Tampa (1983-1988), Don Bosco Tech, Boston (1980-1983), and St. Dominic Savio HS, East Boston (1990-1993, 2001-2004). He also was vocation director from 1983 to 1984 and 1993 to 1996.

After earning a doctorate in educational administration/superintendency at Boston College in 1996, Fr. Jon was appointed superintendent of schools for the New Rochelle Province in 1999 and served until 2004. He assisted St. Rosalie Church in Harvey as an associate pastor from 1996 to 2001. He was a frequent speaker at the National Catholic Education Association, and member of various boards including the National Religious Vocation Conference, and Cafe Hope in Marrero. He was a member of the presbyteral council of the archdiocese of New Orleans and a consultant to the Office of Education of the archdiocese.

In September 2007 Fr. Jon welcomed the Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez, to St. Rosalie. Here he introduces Fr. Chavez to the assembled school children.

Former provincial Fr. Jim Heuser said of Fr. Parks: “"The West Bank of New Orleans gave us a gift in Fr. Jonathan, with his strong sense of family and friendship, and an effusive and joyful Southern style. It blended well with the warm relational approach advocated by Don Bosco. In these last years he returned to the West Bank and was a gift to them, enriching so many who struggled through hard times with his priestly zeal and simple devotional faith. Greatly loved by many, he will be greatly missed.”

A former teacher at Don Bosco Tech in Boston, Jack Sullivan, wrote to Fr. Jon early in July to assure him of prayers and commend his professionalism and his success “in carrying on Don Bosco’s vision.”

The most difficult part of Fr. Jon's pastorate in Harvey was Hurricane Katrina. He stayed thru the storm, left briefly afterward with all the other SDBs, and worked very hard for months to support needy parishioners and anyone else, as well as to repair the damage that the storm caused to the parish facilities. Here he shows off the new computer center in St. Rosalie School in Sept. 2007.

Mary Wenzel, principal of St. Rosalie School, wrote to the students’ parents on the day Father Parks died: “Saint Rosalie school and parish communities are experiencing a tremendous loss, as Father Jon touched many people’s hearts and lives in a very special way. He was always there for everyone and ministered to anyone who crossed his path. Father Jon was a true Salesian [who] daily continued the great work of Don Bosco’s principles of reason, religion, and kindness, especially with the children. He loved the children dearly and enjoyed spending time with them around campus all the time.”
His obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picayune also contains this note: "It was Fr. Jon's unique gift of mixing humor and life experiences that endeared him to all who were lucky to enjoy his friendship and fellowship. He was always ready with a clever or witty remark for the occasion or a word of encouragement (or maybe even a song or two, Sponge Bob Square Pants maybe)."
Fr. Jon will be buried in a family plot in Westlawn Cemetery in Gretna.
To read some (or all) of the tributes to this fine priest, visit http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/nola/guestbook.aspx?n=jonathan-parks&pid=144064444&cid=full

Homily for 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily
for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary TimeJuly 11, 2010
Luke 10: 25-37
Christian Brothers, Iona College
Willow Towers, New Rochelle

“Because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Luke 10: 29).

Some of those who question Jesus in the gospels do so sincerely. They’re really looking for truth, for the path to a closer relationship with God. Others, however, are out to “test” Jesus, to “trap him in his words,” to show that he’s not a reliable or an authentic teacher in the Jewish tradition, or is some sort of public enemy. Today’s questioner seems to belong to this 2d group, for, Luke says, he “stood up to test” Jesus (10:25).

St. Luke comments that this “scholar of the law,” or as many translations call him more simply, this “lawyer,” “wished to justify himself.” (If I were going to insert a lawyer joke, this would be the place. But I’ll resist that temptation.) What does that mean? To be just, in biblical terms, is to be in a right relationship with God: to be, to act, even to think as God wishes. Noah, Abraham, Joseph the husband of Mary, Simeon, Joseph of Arimathea are all described as “just.” These are all people who did without hesitation what God asked of them. In the NT the paragon of justice is Jesus, the “holy and just one” of God (Acts 3:14), whose all-encompassing justice compensates for all the rest of us as well.

But this lawyer hesitates regarding God’s wishes. He “wishes to justify himself,” i.e., to make his own determination of a good relationship with God, his own determination of what God should expect of him, what God should require of him. He’s ready to love his neighbor—God wants that—provided he can control who belongs in that category.

He’s hardly unique. The implication of Jesus’ parable is that none of his audience would think of a Samaritan as a neighbor, or expect the Samaritan to act like a neighbor. Not even the apostles would. Do you remember that just a few weeks ago James and John wanted God to destroy a Samaritan village that wouldn’t offer hospitality to Jesus on his journey (Luke 9:52-54)? The implication is that it’s not only natural and normal for us to categorize some people as “outsiders,” but that’s OK with God as well. And if it’s OK with God, then I’m OK, I’m in good standing, I’m “justified,” when I disregard these categories of people too. But these are the choices of individual persons, not of God.

The message of Jesus, in this parable and thruout his teaching, is that in God’s eyes no one is an outcast, unclean, unworthy of love—not a neighbor. It’s true that some people reject the offer of God’s love. Not for nothing does Jesus rake the scribes and Pharisees over the coals: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!” (Matt 23; Luke 11:37-54). He warns that sinning against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable (Luke 12:10). His parable of the last judgment casts those who don’t show a practical love for their neighbor—even the poorest of society, even strangers and prisoners—into eternal fire (Matt 25:41). They’re choosing to be outsiders; God hasn’t made that decision.

In our reading from the prophet Hosea on Thursday, the Lord proclaimed to Israel, “I am God and not man” (11:9), which is a prophecy of God’s mercy overcoming his anger at Israel’s sinfulness. Isaiah has a similar line from the Lord to Israel, also about mercy: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord” (55:8). It implies that we humans aren’t at all ready to forgive, to relent, when we’re offended. It implies that the human standard of justification differs from God’s standard.

Which we know well enuf, don’t we? In too many ways we want, we demand, that God should judge by our standards: May such-and-such a sinner (by our judgment) rot in hell! Or, contrariwise, How could God condemn so-and-so’s actions, when I certainly wouldn’t condemn them? The bottom line of so much of our thinking is: If God were really smart, he’d listen to me! That’s when we, like the scholar of the law, are seeking to justify ourselves—to make our ideas, our behavior, the standard of propriety, of Church discipline, of morality.

We know well enuf that it doesn’t work that way, of course. Jesus doesn’t equivocate when he answers the lawyer. The lawyer started by asking, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (10:25). (Note that it’s a foolish question: no one can do anything to earn an inheritance. Inheritances—like eternal life—are something freely given.) And Jesus ends the dialog by commanding him—not suggesting—“Go and do likewise” (10:37). Go and be a neighbor to anyone and everyone, as God does. Go and give of yourself and your resources to anyone and everyone, as God does. Human calculations, prudent calculations—such as those presumably made by the priest and the Levite as they pass by the injured traveler—don’t enter the moral equation, the equation of our being made right before God.

And so it is with all aspects of our lives: not what does the common wisdom of people suggest, not how will this benefit me, not how do I feel about it, not even what does some rule or law say. But what will benefit my neighbor, my family, the community, the common good of society? What would Jesus do? What does Jesus teach in the Scriptures and in his living voice in the 21st century, the Catholic Church? In the Opening Prayer this evening, we prayed that the Gospel would be our rule of life. For it is Jesus who justifies us—thru his own self-emptying on the cross; and not our own calculations, estimations, and wisdom. There’s no justifying ourselves.

New Class of SLMs

New Class of SLMs

On the evening of July 5, while the country was finishing up its Independence Day celebrations, 23 young people with foreign ideas began to assemble at Maryknoll's center for lay missionaries.

They weren't Maryknollers, however, but Salesians--candidates to become the 2010 "batch" of Salesian Lay Missioners. Having already done a fair amount of discernment and been carefully vetted by the SLM staff in New Rochelle, they were starting 4 weeks of orientation that will lead up to their commissioning on August 7 and their departure soon after for various foreign destinations, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, and Rwanda.

Their first three orientation days, July 6-8, were dedicated to bonding as a group and starting to form Salesian identity. Your humble blogger was privileged to visit each of these days to celebrate Mass and Reconciliation for them and be part of their Salesian orientation. I was impressed in those few hours by their spirit of joy and enthusiasm, their courage and sense of adventure (not without a due amount of nervousness).

The candidates are being guided by Adam Rudin, director of the SLM program (himself a former volunteer in Bolivia), Jayne Feeney, who just returned from 11 months in Ethiopia, and Meg Fraino of the province's youth ministry office. During earlier discernment weekends many of the candidates met other former SLMs, and they've also been in touch with SLMs still on-site where they'll be going.

21 SLM candidates after Mass on July 8, with program director Adam Rudin (back row, left).

About 10 days follow--they're going on presently--of various forms of cultural orientation, under the direction of the Maryknoll Missioners, together with smaller volunteer groups from other sponsors. There are 10 volunteers coming from about 4 other sponsors.

The SLMs' third week will be spent in the Salesian day camps at Corpus Christi and Holy Rosary parishes in Port Chester, N.Y., learning some of the practical aspects of Salesian youth work, and reflecting upon the experience.

In the fourth week (Aug. 1-7) the SLMs will be on a quasi-retreat, getting further Salesian orientation (about Don Bosco, the Salesian Family, the Preventive System...) and finishing up necessary paperwork; this week coincides with one of the Salesian summer retreats, enabling the young volunteers to get to know actual SDBs and vice versa. At the retreat's closing Mass, Fr. Tom Dunne, the provincial, will commission them in the presence of and with the support of all the SDB retreatants.

The orientation period is part of the discernment process for both the Salesians and the SLM candidates. On the 3d day, one candidate departed after deciding this wasn't the moment for him to do this. Here's hoping the other 22, and the SLM staff, will discern God calling them to continue--and prayers for their success.

Homily for 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
14th Sunday of Ordinary TimeJuly 4, 2010
Gal 6: 14-18
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“May I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6: 14).

Most people like to brag, at least a little bit—about business or athletic accomplishments, about family history, about their children’s achievements (you’ve all seen the bumper stickers—“My child’s an honor student at such-and-such a school”; “I’m proud of my Eagle Scout”; and so on), about many things. Some of what we brag of is noble, some of it not so noble.

St. Paul has a different idea: to brag about not what he’s done but what God has done. It’s true that in one or two places Paul does refer to his own deeds—persecution of the Church, for instance, before his conversion; and his sinful inclinations against which he’s powerless except for God’s grace. What God does, however, is offer us grace and eternal life thru the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ.

I read recently of the response of Archbishop John Purcell (1800-1883) of Cincinnati to one episode of 19th-century anti-Catholicism. Former President John Quincy Adams had come to town in 1843 to dedicate a new astronomical observatory on Mt. Ida, one of the city’s prominent hills—later named Mt. Adams in his honor. Adams declared, “This observatory is to be a beacon of true science that should never be obscured by the dark shadows of superstition and intolerance symbolized by the Popish cross.” In 1859 the Church of the Immaculata was built two blocks away, and Abp. Purcell made sure that the cross on top of its steeple was a couple of feet higher than the top of the observatory. Take that, you anti-Catholics! And when the observatory had been forced to relocate to escape the smog of Cincinnati’s growing industry, the church became a monastery of the Passionist Order, which renamed the church Holy Cross, in 1873. Abp. Purcell returned for its rededication and gave a homily entitled “The Triumph of the Cross.” So there, anti-Catholics! Coincidentally, Abp. Purcell died on this day, July 4, in 1883. May he rest in peace.

The cross of Christ is indeed our triumph, or more accurately, the triumph of God over the power of evil, over sin and death. So St. Paul gladly boasts of it—and of his self-identification with the cross.

Two weeks ago, our gospel reading included a passage in which Jesus told his followers, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Jesus says this, in Luke’s gospel, as he’s making his way to Jerusalem. To follow Jesus is to go with him toward Calvary, toward the cross. St. Paul says he’s done that; he’s been crucified to the world (Gal 6:14); he’s died to the world and all the honors and comforts that the world could offer him. Figuratively, his body has been crucified: he’s been beaten and whipped and stoned out of hatred for Christ; he’s walked thousands of miles over rough roads in all kinds of weather; he’s camped out on the side of the road, and he’s been shipwrecked. His body “bears the marks of Jesus” (6:17)—the wear and tear of the years, the wounds and scars.

In this letter to the Galatians, Paul’s been debating with some opponents about whether Christians are bound to follow the Law of Moses—in essence, to be Jews in order to be saved by the Jewish Messiah, the Christ. For non-Jews, for Greek pagans who’ve been converted by Paul’s preaching, such a position would entail following the Torah in all its details like any devout Jew—including circumcision. But Paul maintains that the grace of God offered thru the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. No physical mark—circumcision—is necessary or even useful. It’s worthless without the cross, without God’s freely offered forgiveness, without grace. The marks of Jesus that Paul bears on his body are cause for boasting because they indicate his acceptance of the peace and mercy that God offers thru Christ, not thru observance of the Law.

Grace makes one a new creation, Paul says (6:15). Christ rose from the dead on the 1st day of the week, inaugurating a new creation of the world, a rebirth of humanity. (That’s why Christians worship on the 1st day of the week and not on the Sabbath.) To be part of that new creation is all that matters—no marking on your body. A little earlier in this letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote, “There’s neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free person, neither male nor female—but all are one in Christ Jesus” (3:28). That was part of our 2d reading 2 weeks ago. Being circumcised or not (Jew or Gentile); being physically branded as someone’s property, or as a soldier in the Roman army, or not (slave or free); and gender—none of that matters for those who “have been baptized into Christ” (3:27) and thus into the new order of creation, into the order of grace and not of the Mosaic Law, of social status, of national pride.

How are our bodies marked by Christ? How has Christ affected our lives? To what extent have our desires and our passions and our selfishness been crucified in Jesus’ name, so that we might truly say we belong to him?

“Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule,” Paul says today, “and to the Israel of God” (6:16). The true Israel, God’s Israel, is the one associated with his only Son, with Jesus Christ. Glory be to the cross and to Christ risen from the dead, and to all those who follow him on the road toward Calvary and toward eternal life.

Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 27, 2010
Luke 9: 51-62
Ursulines, Willow Dr., N.R.

“No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9: 62).

Following the theology of the day, St. John Bosco grabbed that verse as evidence of the danger inherent in walking away from a religious vocation once one had set out upon that vocational path.*

The entire passage is really about discipleship, about following Jesus attentively and wholeheartedly. Having just predicted his own passion and death—our gospel last Sunday (Luke 9:22)—and predicted it a 2d time (9:44), and foreshadowed it in his conversation with Moses and Elijah during his transfiguration (9:30-31)—all this is in Luke’s 9th chapter, like our passage today—Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” because “the days for [his] being taken up were fulfilled” (9:51). These are the days for the accomplishment of his Father’s plan, for him to do the work of our redemption.

As you’ll recall, last Sunday’s gospel also included the teaching that the disciple must take up her cross daily and follow Jesus, walk with Jesus on a road of self-loss, self-denial, self-emptying (9:23-24). The various examples in today’s gospel reading reinforce that teaching.

If we would follow Jesus, we don’t give way to anger, and we don’t wield authority with a heavy hand, much less a heartless one. Jesus doesn’t snuff a smoldering wick nor snap a bruised reed (Matt 12:20); he doesn’t call down fire and brimstone on an unwelcoming village nor permit his followers to do so. He’s gentle with the erring and the reluctant, giving them time to open up to his mercy. In fact, Luke will later record how many of the Samaritans accepted Jesus’ teaching when Philip the Deacon brought it to them, and the same John who now wants to toast them will be one, instead, to call down on them the grace of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:4-25).

As Jesus and the apostles proceed toward Jerusalem—as Jesus proceeds toward the fulfillment of his mission—3 people offer to join him on his journey. As he’d told the 12 earlier, his journey involves carrying a cross, and those who would join him must carry it as well. To these 3 he gives particular warnings; specifically, examples of what they must leave behind when they come with him.

The 1st says, “I’ll follow you wherever you go” (9:57). Jesus advises him that being a disciple means leaving behind comfort; it means never being quite settled; it means always being restless. “The Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head” (9:58) in this world. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in” our Creator—and there are limits to how much that’s possible in this life. We’ll never be fully at home in this world; “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). The journey we set out upon with Jesus is indeed toward Jerusalem—the heavenly Jerusalem (like Bunyan’s pilgrim)—and we’ll have ample hardships on the way.

Christ calling disciples (Tissot)

The 2d would-be disciple says, when Jesus invites him to follow, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father” (9:59). Filial obligations are certainly important, and perhaps none more so than accompanying one’s father (or mother) to death and burial. Yet Jesus responds, apparently harshly, “Let the dead bury their dead. You, go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (9:60). Following Jesus, being an apostle, announcing the kingdom—this is one’s highest priority, one’s highest duty. Even family responsibilities are 2d to that. Most of us have known preachers of the kingdom who became missionaries, so dedicated—especially in the years before air travel was common—that they’d leave home and not see their families for years, if ever. That’s total dedication to following Jesus!

The 3d would-be disciple, like the 1st one also is a volunteer. He says, “I’ll follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home” (9:61). He seems to be imitating Elisha in our 1st reading (1 Kings 19:20), doesn’t he? But Jesus doesn’t answer like Elijah. Instead, he tells this volunteer that there’s no looking back. Following Jesus is that urgent. Following Jesus supersedes any earthly relationship, even a familial one. We might think of Thomas More, whose memorial we kept last week, sadly, very reluctantly, leaving behind his dear wife and four children for the sake of God’s kingdom rather than Henry’s.

Choosing Jesus as our Master, choosing Jesus as the one who will guide us to eternal life, to the heavenly Jerusalem, may mean forgoing some of the comforts of life, not to mention any pretense of luxury. It’s a commitment with its own obligations and a new set of relationships that surpass those of a citizen of this world. And it’s a total commitment. We can’t be a part-time disciples of Jesus.


* “Importance of Following a Vocation,” in the introduction to the Constitutions, 1875. Eng. ed. of 1957, p. 7.

Homily for 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the 12th Sunday

of Ordinary Time
June 20, 2010
Zech 12: 10-11; 13: 1
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“On that day there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness” (Zech 13: 1).

Our 1st reading this morning comes form the prophet Zechariah, one of the so-called “minor prophets”—to distinguish him and others like Amos, Hosea, and Micah from the “big boys”—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

Zechariah’s ministry came late in the 6th century B.C. after the Jews had returned from exile in Babylon, and occupied only a tiny territory around Jerusalem. They were just an insignificant part of the Persian Empire. In that context of political humiliation, Zechariah foretold a great military victory for the Lord’s people and for the dynasty of King David, initiating a messianic age.

That prophecy leads up to the rather strange passage that was our 1st reading, involving some sort of a victim: grace shall be poured out upon the house of David and the inhabitant of Jerusalem, but this outpouring of grace, of divine favor, is related somehow to one “whom they have pierced” and to mourning “as for an only son” and “a firstborn.”

We’re not sure what that meant to Zechariah and the Jews at the end of the 6th century B.C. But we do know what it meant to St. John the Evangelist and the earliest Christians. John links the prophecy to the crucifixion of Jesus, to the coup de grace delivered by one of Jesus’ Roman executioners: “When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, …one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. This happened so that the scripture passage might be fulfilled: ‘They will look upon him whom they have pierced’” (John 19:33-34,36-37). John sees the mysterious messianic words of Zechariah fulfilled in what happened to Jesus the Messiah.

Depiction of the soldier thrusting his lance into Jesus' side: altarpiece at the shrine of Shrine of Atotonilco near San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico (from the blog "Dick and Jane Travel": http://www.fmschmitt.com/travels/mexico/AtotonilcoSanctuary/index.html )

And not only in Jesus’ side being speared open by the soldier; but also in what that caused: “blood and water flowed out.” Physiologically speaking, that’s not literal water but some sort of clear bodily fluid, possibly blood serum.

That outflowing of blood and water from the pierced side of Jesus—from his heart, we often say—is, according to St. John, the source of God’s grace for all those who “shall look on him” (cf. John 3:14-15). “Whoever believes in [Jesus], ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him’” (John 7:38); i.e., the water that symbolizes the gift of the Holy Spirit shall flow from Jesus into the hearts of all who believe in him.

That outflowing of blood and water is for St. John a sacramental image. From the pierced side of Jesus, i.e., from the death of Jesus on the cross and his passage to eternal life, we receive the sacraments of Eucharist and Baptism, those sacraments that incorporate us into the mystery of his death and resurrection—“clothing [us] with Christ,” to use the metaphor of St. Paul this morning (Gal 3:27).

In Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit thru the pouring of water and the invocation of the Holy Trinity. The Eucharist is made by an invocation of the Holy Spirit over the bread and wine and the repetition of the words of Jesus.

The sacraments are the fountains that purify us from sin and uncleanness. “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition” is fulfilled in the sacraments that bestow on believers God’s grace of forgiveness and redemption.

How good God is, to offer us such grace! How wonderful that we can come to this grace every Sunday and receive the Body and Blood of Jesus and reinforce or renew our “belonging to Christ” (cf. Gal 3:29); every Sunday look on him who was pierced for our sins (cf. Is 53:5), the “only son” of God, God’s “firstborn” from eternity and the “firstborn” of the Virgin Mary at the appointed time of salvation (cf. Luke 2:6-7; Gal 4:4). Zechariah speaks of “mourning” and “grieving” for this “only son” and “firstborn.” If we grieve, it should be only for our sins, which brought Jesus to the cross. But we don’t mourn or grieve for Jesus; for “on the third day [he was] raised” (cf. Luke 9:22) to eternal life—that life which is ours, too, when we follow him and accept the grace he offers us (9:23-24).

A Prayer of St. Ephraim

A Prayer of St. Ephraim
(whose feast occurs today)

Lord and Master of my life,
keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement,
lust of power and idle chatter.
Instead, grant to me,
Your servant,
the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love.

O Lord and King,
grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother;
for You are blessed now and ever and forever. Amen.

St. Ephraim, a deacon, lived in Syria in the 4th century. He wrote Scripture commentaries, theological works, and many hymns, and he's ranked as a doctor of the Church.
Thank you to Deacon Greg, from whose blog I've "stolen" the image and the prayer.

Bro. John Zito, SDB (1922-2010)

Bro. John Zito, SDB (1922-2010)

Bro. John Zito, SDB, returned to his Maker on June 8, 2010, from St. Philip the Apostle Residence, the Salesian retirement home in Tampa. He was 88.

Bro. John, born on April 29, 1922, in Niagara Falls, was the son of immigrants from Sicily, Joseph and Catherine Zito. He was baptized in the family’s parish church of St. Joseph on May 7 of that year and was also confirmed there 12 years later.

When John decided to become a Salesian brother, he was following in the steps of an aunt and a sister, who had become Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters). He went to the Salesian seminary at Newton, N.J., in August 1938 and entered the novitiate there in 1942. He made his first profession of vows on Sept. 8, 1943.

As a young brother he was trained as a printer and practiced that trade for 13 years at Don Bosco Seminary in Newton (1943-1948), Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa (1948-1951), and Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, N.J. (1951-1956).

Few Salesians of my generation, if any, ever dreamed that Bro. John might have been a basketball coach. This undated photo seems to come from Don Bosco Tech in Paterson in the early 1950s.

In 1956 he was called back to Newton to assist in the training of the novices for three years. Then he moved to the provincial house in New Rochelle, where he teamed up with Bro. Michael Frazette in running the St. Dominic Savio Classroom Club, a national organization that at its peak enrolled some 70,000 students (1959-1972). This apostolate, he said, “attractively presented Dominic Savio to many youngsters as a role model and friend.”

Bro. John worked in the province vocation office for another 15 years (1972-1987) from Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, N.Y., and the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y., and then in youth ministry at the Salesian retreat center in Goshen (1987-1991). This shot from 1974 shows Bro. John surrounded by young people at a vocation fair in Philadelphia.

From 1991 to 1999 he was treasurer of the house of formation in South Orange, N.J., and in 1999 he returned to the provincial house to help in the development office and then the mission office.

In 2007 Bro. John retired to the St. Philip the Apostle Residence in Tampa, where he maintained an apostleship of prayer, counsel, and cheering for the Notre Dame football team.

Former provincial Fr. James Heuser said of Bro. John: “For me, John lived a life clearly centered on God, a Salesian who made himself a brother to many, and who encouraged others to live in joyful trust. ‘Smile, God loves you!’ was his favorite motto ... a conviction which he lived.”

Bro. John was loved far and wide for his cheerful spirit, capacity for friendship, and witness of prayer. He lived out what the Salesian rule of life asks in Constitution 17: “Because he is a herald of the Good News [the Salesian] is always cheerful. He radiates this joy and is able to educate to a Christian and festive way of life: ‘Let us serve the Lord in holy joy.’”

The secret of persevering in religious life, Bro. John said, was frequent confession and Holy Communion, devotion to our Lady, and praying a Salve Regina every day.

He provided an outstanding example of piety, fidelity, and hard work to his younger confreres. Bro. Thomas Dion, SDB, the province’s treasurer, said, “Bro. John was a true Salesian brother—a faithful witness of Christ for the young.”

Fr. John Puntino, SDB, Bro. Zito’s superior for part of the time that he served in the house of formation in South Orange, said: “Bro. John excelled as member of the formation team during the mid-1990s. He gave excellent witness in his personal life of consecration; he cared with great energy and prudence for the material needs of the community; he remained active in apostolic works with Salesian Cooperators; he created a warm and welcoming community atmosphere.”

Maybe we didn't know about his coaching skills (see photo above), but we all knew that Bro. John played a hot harmonica at many a Salesian feast day or end-of-retreat entertainment.

Bro. John’s funeral will be doubly celebrated in Tampa and at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw. He will be buried at the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen.

Homily for Trinity Sunday

Homily for Trinity SundayMay 30, 2010
Prov 8: 22-31
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“I was beside him as his craftsman…and I found delight in the human race” (Prov 8: 30-31).

Wisdom is speaking, Wisdom personified, speaking as God’s collaborator in the creation of the universe.

According to our Christian understanding of God, Divine Wisdom is indeed personified in the 2d Person of the Holy Trinity, in the Son. The greatest church in Christendom in the Middle Ages was Hagia Sophia, “Holy Wisdom,” the cathedral of Constantinople, consecrated to Christ the Wisdom of God. A museum today, it’s still an architectural and artistic marvel.

The Scripture reading tells us that Wisdom—God the Son in our Christian interpretation—joins the Father in creating an orderly universe, a “wise” universe. It’s interesting that Divine Wisdom calls herself—in Proverbs Wisdom is feminine, but that shouldn’t stop us from linking her with the Son of God, for Christ encompasses all of humanity—Wisdom calls herself a “craftsman.” Altho the Hebrew vocabulary of Proverbs and the Greek vocabulary of the gospels are different, a “craftsman” is what Jesus became as a human being, a craftsman, the legal son of a craftsman—or, as we usually put it in English, a carpenter, the son of a carpenter. The Wisdom of God shaped the universe, and the human race within that universe; the Wisdom of God also crafted our redemption after we tried by our sins to ruin what God had created. The Son of God re-created the universe, made us, as St. Paul says, “a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).

You’re no doubt more used to connecting wisdom with the Holy Spirit than with God the Son. Long ago, when preparing for Confirmation, we learned that wisdom is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And when we pray for wisdom, more likely we turn to the Holy Spirit than to Jesus.

I’m no theologian. If great theologians like St. Augustine and St. Thomas couldn’t adequately explain the Trinity, I certainly can’t. But we can at least say that the Holy Spirit is the connector, the bonder, the unifier. The Spirit comes from the Father and the Son to us to join us to them. “The love of God has been poured into our hearts thru the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). So the Divine Wisdom and Divine Love flow from the Father and the Son to us thru the Spirit.

What is wisdom? Nothing to do with being a “wise guy,” of course. At Christmas we refer often to the “wise men.” Who were they? Men who sought Christ! So, in broad terms, we may say that wisdom consists in seeking God, or seeking all that God is: truth, goodness, virtue. As the Bible says, “Fear of the Lord”—meaning reverence—“is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 110:10; cf. Prov 1:7; 9:10; Job 28:28). This kind of wisdom, the kind that looks for goodness and truth, is the Lord’s “delight day by day,” as our 1st reading proclaims (Prov 8:30).

The reading ends with this line: “I found delight in the human race.” It wasn’t enuf that Wisdom created the universe. No—Wisdom wants to be with the best part of creation, with people. As Christians we believe, in fact, that Divine Wisdom became one of us: “The Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).

God’s Son “delights in the human race” so much that he became human, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of Mary, lived us among us for more than 30 years, formed very close bonds of friendship with chosen men and women.

And why did God, in his wisdom, do that? Out of love, out of a desire to have humanity as his companions and friends forever: “I found delight in the human race.” Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity, which is God as family, to use human terms we can understand. God wants his family to be expanded. So he adopts us as his children—chosen and beloved like the apostles—by making us like his Son Jesus. Jesus pours out his Holy Spirit upon us, bonding us intimately to himself. We become “sons in the Son,” to use an old phrase, God’s children because Christ has laid hold of us and grappled us to himself, so much does he love us and want us as his own.

Getting Hawkish

Getting Hawkish

For well over a year we've had several red-tailed hawks in the vicinity. The pigeon population has been just about annihilated; haven't seen any rabbits this year. The squirrels survive.

They like to perch on the weather vane on top of the tower of the house--either surveying their manor, or watching for some unwary prey.

Sunday after lunch two of them were perched on the chain-link fence of the ball field for a few minutes. I got some shots thru the windows.

Habemus Diaconum

Habemus Diaconum

Yesterday morning, May 22, Bro. Michael Leschinsky, SDB, was ordained a deacon in the presence of hundreds of members of the Salesian Family. Bishop Dominic Marconi, a retired auxiliary from Newark, presided over the sacred rite, which took place in the chapel of the Marian Shrine at Haverstraw, N.Y. (street address in Stony Point).

Bro. Mike is from Youngstown, Ohio, where his vocation was nurtured in his family and in his parish, St. Matthias. He made is first vows as an SDB in 2002, his perpetual vows in 2008. He taught at Salesian HS in New Rochelle before starting his theology studies, first in Mexico and currently at Seton Hall University in South Orange.

Deacon Mike with his parents, Anne and Tom, Bp. Marconi, and Fr. Tom Dunne, the SDB provincial

Bro. Mike is a "transitional" deacon, meaning that we hope he'll be ordained a priest next year after completing his studies.

Bro. Mike will continue to serve the young in the ranks of Don Bosco.

Homily for 7th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
7th Sunday of Easter
May 16, 2010
Rev 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20
Ursulines, Willow Dr., N.R.

“Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates” (Rev 22: 14).

The Book of Revelation’s sustained encouragement of the disciples of Jesus to stick it out thru persecution and all the other trials of life ends with the Lord’s promise to come soon (22:12,20) and the prayer of the Lord’s bride, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:17,20). The Christian’s sole hope is that the Lord lives and will come again, bringing with him the recompense “to each according to his deeds” (22:12), including eternal life for the faithful (22:14) and exclusion for the wicked (22:15, omitted in the reading).

The voice that addresses John the Seer isn’t the same voice that he heard at the beginning of his visions, when he was instructed to write down his visions and pass along messages to the various churches of Asia. Now it is Jesus himself speaking: “Behold, I am coming soon” (22:12). This message is a constant of the Gospels and of Paul’s letters; hence, of Christian teaching, incorporated also in our Creed. The problematic part is the word soon. That, of course, is a relative term. What’s a human lifetime in the scale of human history, or of the age of the earth, not to mention the “length” of eternity? Even if today our average life-spans—at least in the First World—are double those of the 1st century, they’re short enuf. If the Second Coming and the consummation of all things isn’t really just around the corner of time, the end of our own individual time is, and if Jesus isn’t “coming soon,” we’re soon going to him. Be faithful, whether it’s an age of persecution or one “merely” of day-to-day struggle to live virtuously.

“I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds.” Judgment, accountability, reward or punishment follow death. It’s the ancient Christian message of the Last Things. Nothing new or shocking there, but a message seldom heard any more, and perhaps one that too many Christians, even priests and religious and bishops, have stuck away in a far corner of their minds. Why do we do some of the things we do? “What was I thinking?” Maybe it wasn’t of eternity.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (22:13). (If you’ve read Teilhard, you love this line.) As far as St. John’s concerned, Christ is laying claim to divinity. He can judge humanity because he’s God, from whom all things have come, to whom all things are going. The disciples’ loyalty in the face of the demands of the Roman State, or our loyalty today in the face of any earthly authority, is not just to some teacher, to some prophet, but to Jesus Christ the Son of God—not “son” as metaphor of some sort, as when you and I call ourselves God’s children, but Son as an equal to be worshipped, to be obeyed, to be loved unto death, even as he has loved us unto death, to be regarded as the beginning and the end of our existence, as our purpose in life, and to whom we must answer for our lives.

“Blessed are they who wash their robes…” (22:14). Washed in the blood of the Lamb, as we heard in a reading a few weeks ago (7:14), washed in the waters of Baptism. Apparently it was a well known refrain among the early Christians, known even to their pagan neighbors. We read, for instance, in the Acts of the martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity that the crowd in the arena chanted, “Washed and saved, washed and saved,” when the beasts drew blood from the martyrs, “giving evidence of a second baptism.”*

Being so washed—by the Lamb, perhaps also by bloody testimony to the Lamb—entitles one to eternal life: “…so as to have the right to the tree of life” (22:14). This reverses the penalty of our 1st parents, who were driven away from the tree of life because of their sin. The Lamb of God leads us back to the tree of life, for he’s the Lord of life (“the first and the last, the beginning and the end”).

Those who’ve washed their robes also have the right to “enter the city thru its gates” (22:14). The city is the new and eternal Jerusalem, the subject of our 2d reading last week (21:10-14,22-23) and of the last 2 chapters of Revelation. One who enters thru the gates belongs to the city. Others have to attack the city, besiege its walls, like Joshua assaulting Jericho, or sneak in thru secret passages, like David capturing Mt. Zion from the Jebusites (2 Sam 5:6-9). “Whoever doesn’t enter a sheepfold thru the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1). Those who belong to Jesus, however, come and go thru the gate, for he’s their shepherd and calls them by name (John 10:3). The only way into the kingdom of God is thru the gate, which Jesus opens for his own.

“I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches” (22:16). The “you” is plural, so it’s not only John the Seer being addressed here but all the disciples of Jesus, all the churches of Asia—and of course all the other churches who’ve received this testimony thru the ages.

“I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star” (22:16). This is a messianic claim: Jesus is the Christ. He’s the son of David, but also his Lord (“root”) (cf. Ps 110:1). He’s that star which rises out of Jacob in the vision of Balaam who shall smite the enemies of Israel (Num 24:17). He’s the light that overcomes the darkness, the sun of justice, life arising from death. Christ’s association with the morning star also explains the orientation of most churches toward the east, i.e., placing the altar at the east end of the church, so that the congregation worships facing east, looking toward him who is our light, our life, our hope, the one to whom we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

And that’s the conclusion, the culmination, of John’s Revelation: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let the hearer say, ‘Come’” (22:17). The Spirit speaks in the Church, the bride of Christ, calling for him to come to her. She longs for her Spouse. Every disciple longs for the Master’s return.

“Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water” (22:17)—this echoes one of Isaiah’s messianic prophecies: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water,” come and feast on grain and wine and milk, all without cost, and have life (55:1-3). An angel says to John as part of his vision, “Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (19:9). And it’s all a gift; it’s all grace, freely offered by God to anyone who desires it and will come to Jesus, come to Baptism, come receive the Holy Spirit: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’ He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive” (John 7:37-39). And the gift of the Spirit is the gift of eternal life (cf. John 6:63).

“Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20).
_____________
* “Death of the Holy Martyrs of Carthage,” Liturgy of the Hours, 2:1702.

Oh, Agony!

Oh, Agony!

The description of the Appalachian Trail in the trail guide for Harriman State Park ends something like this (quoting from memory): "The trail passes by the Elk Pen parking area, crosses over the New York State Thruway, and reaches Rte. 17. Agony Grind lies just ahead."

The description ends there because it's the park boundary. And what an ominous sounding conclusion!

Last Sunday (May 9) Bro. Tom Higgs and I accepted the challenge. It was a lovely day for hiking, tho very windy (winds continuing from the day before--see the previous posting--but not as strong). Having been to Saturday evening Mass, we left the house a little after 8:00 a.m. Sunday, stopped at the bookstore on the Palisades Parkway to purchase a trail map for Sterling Forest ($8.62 with the tax), dodged some fallen branches on Arden Valley Rd., and were at the Elk Pen a little after 9. There were about 5 other cars there. (There are no elk at the parking area. It's just a name.)

We got ourselves organized and were on the trail at 9:15. Easy going across the Thruway, the Ramapo River, and the commuter railroad by bridge, and a short walk to Rte. 17--which we had to cross without benefit of a bridge; but at least traffic was light. Then into the woods--and the ascent began almost at once.

At first it was moderate; but then the great cliff came into view. And the real climbing began. It wasn't as bad for us as one hiker has described it in his blog (http://www.thebackpacker.com/articles/inspir/art32.php), but we could see how it got its name.

We were overtaken on the 1st ascent by another day hiker who was kind of zipping along. Later, when we got to the Arden Mt. register, we think he was the guy who was heading to Wildcat Shelter for the day--which would be about a 20-mile round-trip from the Elk Pen. Nice little jaunt!
Thru the leaves you can see a little bit of the guy who breezed past us on this ascent.

So we huffed and puffed our way up to the 1st viewpoint and got a nice look at Arden Road and the buildings there, the Arden Valley Road bridge that we'd crossed 15 or 20 minutes previously, and the hilltops of Harriman Park to the east.

And we climbed some more. And some more. If I read the trail map correctly, the total elevation from Rte. 17 to the top comes to some 500' of ascent in less than half a mile of distance. But there were some more spectacular views of the Thruway, especially southward, before the trail sort of leveled off (still a lot of ups and downs) and headed into the woods.You come to the top of one cliff and figure you've done it. Then you look ahead and--oy vey! Yes, we had to get up (not directly, but indirectly) that THING behind Bro. Tom.

We'd figured on catching an unnamed blue-blazed trail that heads south from the AT and runs down to the Indian Hill loop trail in Sterling Forest. It seemed to take a long time before we came to our 1st marker, the Sapphire Trail (also blue-blazed) running north from the AT. Then another good while before we finally came to a large cairn and the blue trailhead on the south side of the AT. The Arden Mt. register was just a few feet farther down the AT. I registered us.

And then we met our 2d and 3d hikers of the day--a couple coming up the blue trail. They were out for the day with their very large poodle--large enuf to be geared with saddlebags! Too bad I didn't take their picture! But they obliged by taking one of us.

Are we there yet?

By this time it was 11:30--way longer than we'd gauged to reach this unnamed trail. We forged on, downhill (and I'm thinking--oh boy! we have to come back up this) till after about 15 minutes we finally reached the yellow trail blazes. By then we were looking for a spot to sit down and eat our sandwiches; we went a distance along the Indian Hill Trail before finding something suitable (a fairly level rock in my case, a large boulder to lean against in Bro. Tom's case) and enjoyed a slow lunch. And I read a few pages of the paperback I'd toted with me.

No way we were going to be able to do the Indian Hill loop and get ourselves back home in time to clean up before Evening Prayer--maybe not even for prayer. So we made our return--considerably faster than we'd come up, and with fewer rest breaks.

Back up to the AT, we sighted one hiker at the register, and then 2 others at the trailhead. One with a full pack moved right on. The 2d stopped to chat with us; he told us the other fellow was from Norway and was going to be hiking for a month. He observed that while lots of people park at the Elk Pen, almost all of them go the other way (staying in Harriman). Sure enuf, when we got back to our car, Bro. Tom counted 28 other cars in the lot. And we met a grand total of 6 hikers, 2 of whom had come up from Orange Tpk. and 1 obviously wasn't parked (the month-hiker).

It took us maybe a little over an hour to hike out (after lunch). But, as we always find, it was in a sense harder to go down a steep climb, being careful not to lose one's balance and fall, looking for good foot grips on sharply sloping rocks, and straining one's knees a lot. (I really expected to be sore on Monday, but wasn't.)

For some excellent photos of the climb up Agony Grind and the views from there, as well as some shots taken further than we went, see http://www.danbalogh.com/agony.html

Those have the advantage of having been taken in late winter, without foliage to get in the way of the vistas. (Of course foliage adds a lot to vistas, too.)

Windstorm

Windstorm

A few weeks ago Westchester County suffered a devastating storm of wind and rain that left trees fallen everywhere, and lots of power outages, including here in N.R. We were fortunate at the provincial house, losing only a mid-sized cherry tree by the seawall that was blown over and a fair-sized maple near the baseball backstop that took enuf damage that it had ot be removed.

On Saturday, May 8, we experienced very strong wind all day--no rain; lots of sunshine, in fact--and during our spiritual reading were startled by a great crash near the house. A very large maple had come down alongside the garden wall--doing no damage except to a little tree or two in its immediate vicinity.

The fallen tree measured 10 feet in circumference (5 feet up the trunk)--and was completely hollow. So--healthy looking as could be outside, thoroughly rotten inside.

It took Bro. Andy and a couple other confreres 2 days to get it all cut up and the smaller segments chipped up.

Firewood, anyone?

Facelift for the Provincial House

Facelift for the Provincial House

The provincial headquarters of the Salesians' Eastern U.S. Province, a.k.a. the province of St. Philip the Apostle, is a handsome granite house built in the mid-1860s by industrialist John Stephenson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stephenson_(coachbuilder)) and used as his summer home. It passed thru several hands before the SDBs bought the property on New Rochelle's Echo Bay in 1919.

Besides province headquarters, i.e., the site of the provincial superior's office, over the years the house has served as the novitiate, the residence for part of the staff of Salesian High School, the school's cafeteria, the residence of various Salesians with province jobs, and their offices.

Rear of the provincial residence

In addition to the sturdy stone of the exterior, the house is graced with some fine woodwork. That, of course, is less durable than the stone. One might suppose that it's also vulnerable to the salt air associated with proximity to Long Island Sound. So every once in a while that wood requires quite a refurbishing. It was last done in preparation for the visit of Fr. Juan Vecchi, the SDB Rector Major (1996-2002), in 1998.

On May 6 we undertook the work anew: having all the exterior woodwork scraped down, repaired as needed, and repainted. Here are a couple of photos of the first day's work.

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb
Back on the 3d Sunday of Easter (April 18), I referred in my homily to Jan van Eyck's masterpiece in the Ghent's cathedral of St. Bavo (http://sdbnews.blogspot.com/2010/04/homily-for-3d-sunday-of-easter-april-18.html).

The painting made the news a week ago, the NYT reporting that it's going to be restored. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/arts/design/05getty.html The print edition even has a nice color photo of the complete painting (12 panels--well, that's not quite complete because 2 were stolen several decades ago and never recovered).

Centennial Camporee

Centennial Camporee

The Westchester-Putnam Council of the BSA held a camporee April 30-May 2 to celebrate the centennial of the BSA. It took place at Blue Mountain Reservation, a county park in Peekskill, N.Y., and attracted some 1,280 Boy Scouts, Venturers, and adult Scouters. We had a lot of assistance from the New York National Guard for both security and activities.

The whole bunch of us were divided into 8 “encampments” made up of 7-8 troops each based on where they were camped. Each group wore a distinctively colored camporee T-shirt.

Troop Forty assembled after setting up camp.

The camporee was quite an experience. Troop Forty got up to Peekskill in stages on Friday afternoon (25 boys and 5 adults), and we started easily enuf with camp set-up and supper. Soon after dark, things got rolling with encampment campfires (flag raising, announcements, skits, and songs around the fire, flag lowering). After these opening campfires, we all gathered in the dark (under somewhat dim field lights) in a large field (the “parade ground”) for tug-o-war, encampment vs. encampment (picture 40 or so Scouts on each side doing tug-o-war). At least 2 ropes broke during this endeavor, until eventually 1 encampment was declared the winner after all the eliminations. Finally, Scouts were sent to their camp sites, while most of the Scoutmasters and senior patrol leaders gathered for a "cracker barrel" (assessments and the latest announcements). We went to bed around 11:30, I guess, and naturally some of Troop 40 had to talk for an hour or 2 after that--which did not make happy campers of the adults, and probably not of our nearest neighbors.


It was surprisingly cool overnite, and Saturday started cool but warmed up soon enuf. Eventually it got to be about 90˚, and the only shade was in the camping areas (not in the large fields—doh!). I got up at 5:45 and said Mass on one of the picnic tables at our site, but before I was finished quite a few of our boys and many others were stirring.

We had another encampment flag raising and a few announcements around 8:00, and then everyone returned to the parade ground for assembly. A N.Y. Army National Guard unit provided a band, which played music while we got together. One Scout from each encampment carried his encampment’s flag as part of the color guard, and 2 soldiers joined them to present the colors and raise the flag while the band played the national anthem. We all recited the pledge of allegiance, the Scout Oath, and the Scout Law (as we do at every Scout gathering). Various intros and announcements followed; and then we were sent to the day’s activities, rotating on schedule among 4 venues (2 encampments at a time at each venue).














Top: Army band performing during the morning assembly (by Anthony Jenkins). Bottom: The color guard raises our flag.

View of part of the huge crowd (over 1,000) assembled on the parade ground for flag raising and other morning rites.
Troop Forty started at the waterfront, where there were canoeing and kayaking, fly fishing, scuba, and nautical knot stations. The scuba was strictly theoretical, and I don’t think any of our boys took that in. They listened to a little about fly fishing, and a few stuck around there a bit longer. Almost all of them tried canoeing or kayaking, and 1 had the “honor” of the 1st baptism, i.e., tipping over in a kayak and having to swim/wade ashore. (There were a few others later in the day, I heard.) He said the water was quite cold; fortunately, he had a change of clothes in camp; and during a break I rigged my clothes line and hung up his wet stuff, which till then had just been draped over a picnic table.

The 2d activity was field sports, which included a 30’ climbing tower, an obstacle course, 2 forms of tug-o-war, and dodge ball. That kept them busy for a couple of hours, until lunch. By then it was good and hot, and we were all seeking whatever shade we could find around the edges of this big, dusty field (the only one that was dusty). One younger Scout challenged me to tug-o-war—no contest. Then 3 or 4 of them jumped on the other end of the rope, and a couple on my end—that was a contest. Fortunately, before this could go to far (i.e., do too much physical damage to me!), lunch arrived. The Scouts were very good about separating garbage from recyclables at the end of lunch, and also thruout the camp. Not so the county workers, at least on Sunday morn; I saw them throwing everything together in a garbage truck.

Top: Scouts tackling the climbing wall. Bottom: A race thru the obstacle course.

Top: Just before a mob dash to either end of the rope, one Scout and Fr. Mike tug against 3 or 4 Scouts (by Anthony Jenkins). Bottom: Two lads from T40 give a mighty go at tug-o-war. Scoutmaster Tunji Renner and some other members of Troop Forty enjoy a little shade while eating lunch.

3d activity was labeled “Scouting Future” and took place in another large field, this one not dusty but grassy and on the muddy side. That included a National Guard display with vehicles, firearms, and another climbing wall; Segway demo (they all gave that a try, and so did I); a Smart Car; ham radio (I didn’t actually see that one); and geocaching, including a practice “hunt” for a cache in the woods.

Top: Scout learns how to handle a Segway. Bottom: Members of the N.Y. National Guard demonstrate skill at ascending a wall in quick time.

Thence we moved to “Scouting Past,” which included a spectacular display of old patches, programs, posters, etc., mostly from the Westchester-Putnam Council and its predecessors, fittingly; some antique autos; archery and tomahawk throwing (no T40 casualties from either of those!); and ice cream making. And by this point in the day, I was very glad I’d brought my little tripod stool with me, altho I still moved about quite a bit with my camera. All told, I took 225 photos from camp set-up on Friday to the start of Mass on Saturday; and 4 other participants have given me another couple dozen.

Top: learning to use bow and arrow. Bottom: learning to throw a tomahawk.

Mass was back in the semi-muddy field. The 1st troop to arrive decided we should grab what shade we could and moved a picnic table and small marquee to the west side, where many of the congregation would have the advantage of the trees on that side. So we were set up at the fence of the National Guard depot, just outside the park, to the amusement of Scouting executive Roger Stewart when he came around with his camera shortly before Mass: “You know, Fr. Mike, that doesn’t look very good—you, with the tanks behind you!” We laughed about that for the rest of the weekend. (Actually, there weren’t any tanks, just personnel carriers.) Roger took some nice photos of me. I estimate that we got about 270 Scouts and Scouters for Mass, based on the number who took Communion (we had to count out the hosts beforehand). What was, in effect, a draft of my homily is posted below.

Photo above: Instructing Scout Nick Kristensen, Troop 1 Katonah,

about the 1st reading for Mass (by Roger Stewart)

Part of the congregation assembled for Saturday evening Mass.

From there it was off to supper, which we didn’t have time to finish before assembly in the parade ground for flag lowering and the camporee campfire, with the best skits from each of the Friday nite encampment campfires, various corny jokes, tributes, and a long presentation by the Order of the Arrow (Scouting’s honor society)—at which point my body had enuf, and I checked out with the 3 other adults still with the troop and went to bed. When the Scouts came to camp before much longer—evidently no one from T40 wanted to stay up for the movie that concluded the campfire—there was no extended talking. I wonder why?

We were up before 6:00 again on Sunday, broke camp, had breakfast—and waited a long time for our rides back to Mt. Vernon. We were the last troop out of the park, around 11:00.