Homily for 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A tiny bit of tsunami damage, 2004

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

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

With Dad at provincial house, 2003

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

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

Happy Birthday, Don Bosco!

Something initiated by young SDBs in the Philippines--

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

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

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

 

 

2014 Salesian Lay Missioners Start Orientation

2014 Salesian Lay Missioners
Start Orientation

On July 25, twenty young adults assembled at the Divine Compassion Retreat Center in White Plains, N.Y., to begin their orientation for missionary service as Salesian volunteers. There are 15 women and 5 men, including one married couple, and they come from the West Coast, the Midwest, the South, and the Northeast.

As usual, the SLM orientation includes getting acquainted with each other and with Don Bosco and the Salesian charism, and cross-cultural training. Next week they’ll assist at the summer day camp at Corpus Christi and Holy Rosary parishes in Port Chester, getting to know the SDBs and FMAs in action and practicing a little bit of the Preventive System. From August 10 to 16 they’ll be on retreat with SDBs at Haverstraw.

Adam Rudin, director of the Salesian Lay Missioners, is leading the orientation, assisted by two returned SLMs, Amber Kraft (Bolivia, 2009-2012) and Michelle Webb (India, 2009-2010), and Slavka Brigantova. Slavka is involved with a similar Salesian program in Slovakia. Amber and Michelle contribute their lived, practical experience, while Slavka brings a different set of experiences to the U.S. program and is keenly observing it as well.

Homily for 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 27, 2014
1 Kings 3: 5, 7-12
Iona College, New Rochelle
St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon

“Give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong” (1 Kings 3: 9).

The setting for our 1st reading this evening/morning, from ch. 3 of 1 Kings, is the beginning of the reign of King Solomon, youngest son of the great King David.  Solomon will come to be regarded as the wisest man in the OT:  “There has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you” (3:12).  He would also be the one to build the great temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.



A 9th-c. depiction of Solomon's court

When David died (ch. 1), Solomon, a “mere youth, not knowing how to act,” according to his prayer (3:7), secured his throne with an abundance of bloodshed in the face of various palace plots, guided it seems by his mother Bathsheba (yes, that Bathsheba), the prophet Nathan, and other counselors—see ch. 2.  There’s a little irony in the Lord’s noting that Solomon hasn’t asked “for the life of [his] enemies” (3:11), since he’s already eliminated them all.  I don’t know whether anyone’s ever novelized Solomon’s life, as has been done with David, but there’s enuf material in the Bible, and too little actual historical data, for an imaginative someone to have a good time writing about him.

Then, we read in ch. 3 just prior to today’s passage, he offered a prodigious sacrifice to the Lord, “a thousand holocausts” (3:4).  It’s in response to this display of Solomon’s piety that “the Lord appears to him in a dream at nite” (3:5), as we just heard, and offers a generous grace:  “Ask something of me, and I will give it to you” (3:5).

We heard Solomon’s prayer-request:  for understanding, for wisdom, for right judgment.  He recognizes his lack of experience; perhaps he also has misgivings about how he secured his throne, and perhaps he doesn’t feel all that secure.

What is it that Solomon prays for?  It’s not, as the Lord notes, for life, for health, for wealth, for vengeance, for victory—for any of those things that so many of us associate with success in life, with happiness, with achievement.  Which reminds me of an essay in last Sunday’s Times, titled “Love People, Not Pleasure, and Happiness Will Follow,”[1] the upshot of which was that “riches and honors, power and pleasure” don’t make a person happy; they can’t fill the inner emptiness of our souls.  The formula for happiness is to love the people in our lives:  “family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, God and even strangers and enemies” (yes, the Times essayist mentions God!), and to love them in a practical, not a theoretical, fashion.  Our collect this evening/morning struck a similar note, praying that we might use the good but passing things of this world as aids on our way enduring goods, i.e., eternal ones.

But back to King Solomon.  He asks for “an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.”  He recognizes right off that his kingdom is really God’s kingdom; the people are God’s people, not his people.  He rules as God’s viceroy, so to speak.  He too is under God’s authority.  It’s a piece of wisdom to know where we stand in the universe, and not even for kings and presidents is it at the top of the pile.  The beginning of wisdom, the Bible says, is reverence for God (Prov 9:10; Ps 111:10).

2d, Solomon asks God for what he needs to carry out his particular vocation:  his vocation, in God’s place, is to “judge” the people, to render judgment, to provide justice.  How gifted he was by God will be illustrated later in this same chapter with the famous story of the 2 women who bring him an infant, each claiming to be its mother and asking him to settle their argument (3:16-28).  Such wisdom in rendering judgment is something that every parent needs—you all know that!—and every teacher, every manager of an office or business.  We’ve heard that in Baptism we’re anointed, like Christ, as kings, prophets, and priests.  As Christian rulers we’re charged to govern:  to govern our families, to govern our students, to govern employees or anyone under our authority—and to govern ourselves (to practice self-control, self-restraint, in other words)—always to govern by the standards of Jesus.  Apart from that, what other qualities, what other virtues, are required of our particular vocation?  What does “an understanding heart” look like and sound like for a follower of Jesus in my position as a priest, a parent, a religious brother, a professor, a manager, a consumer, a citizen?

3d, Solomon sees correctly the standard of good judgment:  “to distinguish right from wrong.”  How much of our public life—and our private life—is messed up by someone’s (ourselves in many cases, but also others)—someone’s making a judgment based on one of those objects in the Times essay that doesn’t lead to happiness:  by the pursuit of power, pleasure, fame, or something like that?  Why was JFK’s famous Profiles in Courage so notable?  Was it because a politician’s or a “public servant’s” acting on principle (right and wrong), rather than on partisanship or polling results, is so rare?

But we don’t have to look at Washington or Albany to find shortcomings in the making of distinctions between right and wrong.  We can look at ourselves, as we ought at the end of every day, and ask ourselves whether we’ve acted at critical moments—and ordinary ones, as well—from selfishness or generosity, from anger or from kindness, from fear of what others will think or from conviction, etc.  Have we treated people with love?

Solomon’s prayer, then, can be our prayer too:  to beseech the Lord for the graces of our own vocation, for the wisdom to know what’s right and wrong, for the courage to act on what we see.

18th-c. Russian icon of King Solomon

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                [1] Arthur C. Brooks, “Love People, Not Pleasure,” NYT, July 20, 2014, pp. SR 1, 6-7.

Salesians Withdrawing from Elizabeth, N.J.

Salesians Withdrawing
from Elizabeth, N.J.

Fr. Tom Dunne, provincial, announced in letters dated July 12, 2014, that the SDBs will withdraw from pastoral ministry at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Elizabeth as of Aug. 17.  The 2 letters were addressed to the confreres of the New Rochelle Province and to the parishioners of St. Anthony, to be read at all the weekend Masses.

The SDBs have served the parish community of St. Anthony, and the wider community of the city of Elizabeth, for 91 years.  Fr. Tom said that the decision was made with much thought and prayer; the bottom line "was the effect of a gradual decline of Salesian personnel available for ministries in our province," he wrote.

Fr. Tom thanked the people of St. Anthony for the honor of serving them and for their collaboration of so many decades.  He also thanked the confreres who served in pastoral ministry there.

Four SDBs made up the final community assigned to St. Anthony and await new assignments:  Fr. Pat Angelucci, the pastor; Fr. Javier Aracil, assistant pastor; Fr. Tom Brennan, in residence and Salesian liaison to the United Nations; and Bro. Craig Spence, youth minister.

In his letter Fr. Tom also noted that the SDBs have withdrawn from 5 parishes in the last 8 months (Montreal, 2 in Birmingham, Washington, and Elizabeth).  In each case, it was a matter of available personnel to carry out the Salesian mission effectively (which means not only sacramental ministry but also significant youth ministry).

The letter addressed to the SDB confreres also noted an adjustment in the pastoral arrangements for the 2 parishes that the SDBs staff in Harvey, La., on the West Bank of the New Orleans metro area.  Fr. Larry Urban, who has been pastor of St. John Bosco Church, will also serve as pastor of St. Rosalie Church.  Another SDB priest will serve as parochial vicar for St. Rosalie but reside with the SDB community as Archbishop Shaw HS in Marrero (Shaw is about a mile from the church, tho in the next town over).  The New Orleans Archdiocese will assign another priest to live at St. Rosalie and assist in pastoral work.  The 2 parishes remain distinct in all respects except sharing the pastor.  The change is effective Aug. 1.

Students of St. Rosalie School assembled in the playground/parking lot
in October 2005 for a visit of the SDB provincial one month after Katrina.
The church roof, behind them, shows some hurricane damage.

Fr. John DiFiore, pastor of St. Rosalie for the last 4 years, awaits a new assignment.  Since Fr. George Hanna, erstwhile pastor of Nativity in Washington, was assigned to Abp. Shaw's community later in July (province newsletter, July 17), it seems that he'll be the priest designated for ministry at St. Rosalie.

Homily for Funeral of Helene Lorenzo

Homily for the Funeral
of Helene Lorenzo
July 24, 2014
Rev 14: 13
John 6: 51-58
Salesian Missions, New Rochelle              

Helene Gaito Lorenzo worked as the province’s bookkeeper for some 30 years. She retired around 1996 and wanted her funeral rites celebrated here if possible, which her loving family was all in favor of, as well. In the absence of the director of the community (on vacation), the task/honor fell to his vicar, your humble blogger.

[I hope to have a photo of Mrs. Lorenzo eventually.]

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.  Yes, let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them” (Rev 14: 13).

A little less than 2 weeks ago, the Salesian Sisters were celebrating their jubilarians, the sisters professed for 40, 50, 60, 65, even 70 years.  Fr. Jim Heuser began the serious part of his homily—his homilies never begin seriously—by observing why we were there:  not because we love the Salesian Sisters, but because God loves the Salesian Sisters.

That apropos here, too.  Yes, we’ve come because we loved Helene Lorenzo and because she loved us; but the more fundamental reason we’re here is because our Lord Jesus loved Helene and continues to love her.

The Lord Jesus loves all of us, of course—each of us individually and all of us together as his people.  He showed his love for Helene, in particular, by calling her to belong to him in his Church—calling her in Baptism to enter the mystery of his death and the resurrection, inviting her to “eat the flesh of the Son of Man” in the Eucharist (John 6:53), forgiving her sins in the sacrament of Reconciliation.  Helene lived in the Lord every day, and so she was fully prepared to “die in the Lord” when her days ended and she passed over, we trust, in Jesus’ love, to the endless day where God has destroyed death forever and wiped the tears from all faces (Is 25:8).

The Lord Jesus showed his love for Helene by working thru her.  The works that accompany her as she goes to the Father are the works she did in the power of Jesus, day by day, as she lived in the Lord:  works such as her 44-year marriage and her family life.  While she and John weren’t blessed with children of their own, she was a mother figure to many of you, and perhaps for a few priests and brothers as well.  At one point, Jesus compared himself to a mother hen in his concern for the people of Jerusalem (Matt 23:37), and we may say that Helene had a like concern for so many people—a work that accompanies her.

Most of Helene’s working life was done for religious institutions, mainly the Salesians.  Her work wasn’t a job but a ministry, a way of serving the Lord Jesus by helping, indirectly, young people in schools and youth centers and immigrants and other needy folk in our parishes.  Helene’s office work underpinned much of what the Salesians were able to do for the young and the poor during the 30 years that she kept our books, as well as supporting church ministry earlier at OL of Victory, and even what the public authorities did for the poor in Mt. Vernon.  No doubt, in her last years she sustained our ministry with her prayers.  These works, done in and with Christ, accompany her as she goes to the Father.

The root meaning of the word liturgy is “public service.”  Liturgy is a kind of work, the best of works.  It’s primarily the work that God does—saving us thru the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, in which we participate when we celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments.  Helene’s lifelong, faithful participation in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus, is another good work that accompanies her to the Father.  Jesus accompanies her to the Father, with his promise, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (or her).  … The one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (John 6:56-57).

“Blessed,” indeed, “are those who die in the Lord….  Let them find rest from their labors” (Rev 14:13), eternal rest, in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily for 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Homily for the
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Rom 8: 18-23
July 13, 2014
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“The sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Rom 8: 18).

In our reading from the Letter to the Romans last week, St. Paul assured us that, if we try to live virtuous lives, the Holy Spirit already lives in us and we’re somehow already sharing in eternal life.

A passage that comes between that reading and today’s calls us “children of God” and therefore “God’s heirs, joint heirs with Christ”—heirs of eternal life and all the blessings of God’s kingdom—“if only we suffer with Christ so that we may be glorified with him” (8:16-17).

We come to today’s passage, which speaks of our sufferings and indeed of the sufferings of all of creation:  “all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now” (8:22).  Creation—including us human beings—knows a lot about suffering:  physical suffering (not only labor pains but many kinds), mental and emotional suffering.

In another place in Romans, St. Paul links suffering to sin, and Christ’s suffering is the price he paid because of sin; not his own sin, but ours.  We can’t claim to be sinless except insofar as we’ve been forgiven by Christ, whose passion and death atone for our sins.

St. Paul invites us to join our sufferings with Christ’s, to share in his work of redemption, to help Christ, so to speak, lift the created world out of its futility, out of its slavery, bringing mankind into “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (8:21).  Creation waits eagerly for Christ’s work of redemption to be completed—which will occur when he returns in glory on the Last Day, and in the Last Judgment reveals who are God’s children.  Till then, “we groan within ourselves [and sometimes out loud!] as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (8:23).

At the same time, St. Paul seems to say, creation will be renewed; creation will be restored to the way God meant it to be, everything in good order, beautiful, serene, harmonious; and our healthy bodies, healthy minds, and healthy souls—all saved by Christ—will enjoy that creation to the max.

With that hope, the hope of sharing in the glory that Christ Risen already enjoys, “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”  So even in our sufferings, the inevitable sufferings of life, we have hope and we can be joyful.  Suffering hurts, and we don’t embrace it, don’t welcome it; we do fight against it.  But when it can’t be avoided—because of what nature has done (e.g., Hurricane Sandy), because of what other people have done to us (e.g., violence, a family fight, problems at work), because of an accident, because of illness, because of everything that comes with aging, even because of our own stupidity (why did I do that?)—then we join our sufferings with Christ’s; we realize we’re one with God’s own Son; and we look to having our adoption as God’s children completed when Christ comes in glory and brings us into his glory.

There’s something else we do about suffering.  We try to alleviate it.  We try to remedy people’s problems—pain, hunger, unemployment, homelessness, violence, discrimination, illness, etc.  We try to prevent problems in the first place.  That’s why we, as Christians, do so much for society:  hospitals, education, soup kitchens, adoption services, care for refugees, etc., etc.  We anticipate the day when “creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption” by trying to bring a little freedom, a little healing, a little more justice into people’s lives already, now.  That’s why we tell the government that our schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and other social services are just as much a part of our faith, our religion, as our churches, rectories, and convents, and we have to be free to practice our faith also in our schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and other social services.

Salesian Fr. Pietro Zago and some of his students from Lahore
bring aid to victims of an earthquake in Pakistan in 2006.

So, sisters and brothers, keep up the good fight, as St. Paul encourages us in another one of his letters (2 Tim 4:7).  Fight against the suffering of others as best you can, seeing that as God’s work.  And unite your own sufferings that you can’t dodge with those of Christ; that union also is God’s work.  And look toward the glory that we hope to share with Christ Jesus our Savior.

FMAs Celebrate Jubilarians

FMAs Celebrate Jubilarians

Today more than 400 people gathered in Cedar Grove, N.J., to honor 12 Salesian sisters celebrating jubilees--40, 50, 60, 65, and 70 years of religious profession.  Or, as homilist Fr. Jim Heuser said, "We didn't come here because we love the Salesian Sisters but because God loves the Salesian Sisters," and we came to celebrate that love.

The big party began with Mass, starting a little after 11:00 a.m., and a formal luncheon followed. There was Fr. Jim's excellent homily during Mass, and Auxiliary Bishop Manuel Cruz of Newark, the presider gave a fine talk at the end of Mass about his experience with the FMAs, going all the way back to his boyhood in Cuba. All during dinner a running slide show put the jubilarians on display (from their infancy thru their early FMA years to the present). And there were no speeches (nor did Sr. Mary Rinaldi hold one of her famous 50-50 raffles).

Eight priests, seven of them SDBs, concelebrated the Mass with the bishop.  The sisters provided the music--all the Mass parts plus contemporary hymns.

The celebration of Mass took place at the dining venue because the Sisters had expected their chapel in North Haledon to be under renovation. By the time they realized the renovation wouldn't have begun yet, the announcements had all been sent out; so they decided to keep Mass, as well as dinner, at The Grove.

The jubilarians included Sr. Mary Winterscheidt (70 years), her sister Sr. Patricia Winterscheidt (65), Sr. Gloria Machado (65), Sr. Antoinette Cabrera (60), Sr. Esther Cruz (60), Sr. Anna Ragogna (60), Sr. Mary Rinaldi (50), Sr. Grace Ruiz (60), Sr. Mary Terzo (50), Sr. Margarent Rose Buonaiuto (40), Sr. Teresa Gutierrez (40), and Sr. Phyllis Neves (40).  (Unfortunately, there were no silver jubilarians this year.)

Everyone was very pleased with the accommodations, the service, and the meal at the Grove.  The only complaint your humble blogger heard (including from himself, but not only) was that it was too cold.

Your blogger didn't bring his camera with him (and on that half a dozen people remarked).  But he hopes that one of his FMA contacts will supply a photo or two for him to pop into this post later.

Pastoral Assignments for 2014-2015

Pastoral Assignments for 2014-2015

It's many months since the new directors (and re-appointments) for the coming pastoral year (July 1, 2014-June 30, 2015) were announced. A few changes were announced about a month ago, such as Fr. Richard Alejunas's taking up priestly service within the archdiocese of New York (on Staten Island, specifically), and the "permanent" assignment to the provincial house of the two priests who moved up here from Birmingham at the beginning of February.  Fr. Ken Germaine is now the province's archivist.

Fr. Ken Germaine in the archival library

On July 6 Fr. Tom Dunne announced more assignments. Most of them concern the confreres in formation.

After they make their first profession of vows on Aug. 16 (God willing!), Brothers-to-be Rafael Vargas of our province and Benita Guerrero of the Western Province will join the postnovitiate community in Orange, N.J., and take up studies at Seton Hall University.

Bro. John Langan

Two confreres who've just finished at Seton Hall and the immediate postnovitiate period, Bro. John Langan and Bro. Steve DeMaio, will start their practical training.  Bro. John is assigned to Abp. Shaw HS in Marrero (and in fact is already there for summer camp) and Bro. Steve to Salesian HS here in New Rochelle.

Bro. Steve DeMaio

By the grace of God, we're sending five men to the novitiate in Rosemead, Calif., next month--our current batch of prenovices, Ron Chauca, Branden Gordon, Josh Sciullo, Simon Song, and Fr. Derek Van Daniker.

We have two young men starting the candidacy program.  Since they already have college degrees, they'll be posted to Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey rather than the formation community in Orange. (Fr. Jim Heuser, the director at DBP, is a former master of novices as well as former provincial and knows a bit about the formation of candidates.)

Fr. Ken Rodes, who's been here in N.R., will take up the administrative position of Bro. Kevin Connolly at the SDB retirement home in Tampa, and Bro. Kevin will come up here to join our community.

Fr. Paul Grauls

Fr. Paul Grauls leaves Nativity Church in Washington, from which the SDBs are withdrawing, and will go to Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa as part of the pastoral team there (parish, youth center, retreat center).

Fr. Tom assures us that there will be more assignments, especially after some of the necessary arrangements with dioceses have been made (for parish postings).

Homily for 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 6, 2014
Collect
Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“O God, in the abasement of your Son you have raised up a fallen world” (Collect).

We resumed Ordinary Time the day after Pentecost, June 9.  Finally, we celebrate an Ordinary Sunday instead of some special feast, as we’ve done the last 3 Sundays.

The Collect this evening could very well have been an Easter season collect with its contrasting themes:  abasement and raising up, slavery and gladness.  The reference to slavery is also nicely timed with our Independence Day weekend—only by coincidence, to be sure, for such things don’t figure into the calculations of those who prepare the liturgical books in Rome.

God’s Son was abased, our prayer says, brought low from his place in heaven.  There’s an allusion there to the early Christian hymn that St. Paul quotes in Philippians:  “His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as human beings are” (2:6-7 NJB).  Altho human beings tend to consider ourselves the peak of God’s creation—and that’s right in a theological sense—yet it’s a comedown for the Son of God to become human, a far bigger descent in dignity and splendor than any monarch ever suffered on being overthrown and cast into prison.

The Latin word in the Collect translated as “abasement” is humilitas, which in other contexts might be rendered “humility.”  Its root is humus, “earth, dirt.”  Our utmost lowliness as human beings is related to our earthiness; and this is what God’s Son took on, “assuming the condition of a slave, becoming as human beings are.”  In fact, human, too, comes from humus.  The traditional words of Ash Wednesday cut to the core of our being:  “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The Son’s abasement or humiliation in our human condition had a purpose:  to “raise up a fallen world.”  Christ didn’t sink into our human muck and get stuck there; he grabbed hold of our humanity and thru his resurrection and ascension elevated it to the same place where he’d come from, the throne of God.  Christ has restored to humanity the dignity we had when 1st we came from God’s hand, before we fell into sin and rebellion, into hatred, into loathing goodness like Mordred in Camelot (“Fie on goodness, fie!”); before we fell into “slavery to sin.”

This weekend we celebrate our freedom and the aspirations of the entire human race for freedom—aspirations we sometimes find in July 4 rhetoric and do find scattered in elements of the day’s liturgy.  July 4, of course, is about political liberty and its related themes like economic and religious freedom.  We’ve just concluded our 3d consecutive Fortnight of Freedom, trying to raise public awareness of current threats to religious freedom and freedom of conscience.

But when the Collect speaks of slavery, it specifies “to sin.”  God’s Son has rescued us not from political tyranny but from diabolic tyranny, from the rule of sin, of hatred, of selfishness, of despair in our lives, from what St. Paul calls the works of the flesh (Rom 8:9-13)—our personal lives and our lives as a community of human beings.  God’s Son took the condition of a slave and was tempted as we are; unlike us, he lived always in freedom, not yielding to the devil.

Through the forgiveness of our sins in Christ, we’re “rescued” or redeemed or restored to friendship with God.  We’re empowered to live in the Spirit like Jesus, to do the deeds of the Spirit.  We’re given hope of inheriting heaven with Jesus, of attaining the gift of “eternal gladness” alongside our Risen Savior.  We pray God to fill us, his faithful people, “with holy joy.”

Joy comes from being in God’s grace, from living as his children, and that joy is holy because it’s based on God’s own life filling our souls, our hearts, our very existence.  This joy spills out of us and infuses the community:  our families, our workplaces, our social interactions, even our political interactions as we live out our relationship with Jesus—a relationship that leads us to imitate his virtues, to make his goodness our own:  his “graciousness,” his “mercy,” his “great kindness,” his “compassion,” his “faithfulness” (Ps 145).

Homily for Sts. Peter & Paul

Homily for the Solemnity
of Sts. Peter & Paul
June 29, 2014
Acts 12: 1-11
2 Tim 4: 6-8, 17-18
Matt 16: 13-19
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“The Lord will rescue me form every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim 4: 18).

The 1st two readings this morning both have our apostles, Peter and Paul, in jail.  Peter has been arrested by King Herod, who intends to try and execute him, as he’s already done to the apostle James.  Paul is in prison in Rome, writing to his disciple Timothy, expecting that he’ll soon be put to death.

Herod’s plans were upset when Peter was miraculously set free, and he escaped, to go on with his preaching of the Gospel, eventually traveling to Rome and making it his HQ, his apostolic residence or “see.”  Therefore all the bishops of Rome, right up to Pope Francis, are regarded as Peter’s successors, holding the same apostolic authority that Peter did, and Rome is called “the Apostolic See.”  Paul’s anticipation of martyrdom was indeed fulfilled, altho we don’t know how soon after his letter to Timothy.

St. Peter on his episcopal chair,
modeled on statue in St. Peter's, Rome
(Sts. Peter & Paul, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.)

Peter’s authority as an apostle comes from Jesus, as we heard in the gospel.  Christ’s Church, tho made up of human beings like us, is not a human institution.  It’s founded by Christ, and Christ is the guarantor that the Church, out of all the institutions on earth, out of all the philosophies, theologies, and other opinions on earth, only the Church is our sure guide to salvation.  “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus tells Peter, “and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against my Church” (16:19,18).  The netherworld, hades in Greek, is the world of death, hence the realm of the Prince of Darkness (on whom Voldemort, the Dark Lord of Harry Potter, is apparently based).

Jesus’ promise of the Church’s ultimate victory over Satan and over death is foreshadowed by Peter’s deliverance from jail in our 1st reading and by Paul’s great confidence that, altho he may be executed because of his preaching, yet “the Lord stood by me” and “I was rescued from the lion’s mouth” (2 Tim 4:16).  The lion isn’t the Emperor Nero, who finally did put Paul to the sword and crucify Peter, but the devil, who, as St. Peter says in one of his letters, roams about like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8).

Altho the holy apostles faced discrimination and death on account of their allegiance to Jesus, they were confident that God would deliver them.  The deliverance they looked for was the same sort that Jesus himself experienced:  “the gates of the netherworld—the world of the dead—[did] not prevail” over him.  Jesus rose triumphantly from death, delivered by the power of God.  Peter and Paul anticipated a similar victory over death and all the power of Satan.  They were confident of being brought safely to the heavenly kingdom where Jesus reigns.

So are we confident, brothers and sisters.  The prayer of the psalm today is our prayer:  “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” (34:5,8).  As members of Christ’s Catholic Church, as faithful followers of Jesus, we are confident that God forgives us the sins we repent of (“whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”—Matt 16:19) and will raise us to eternal life with Jesus.



"Permanent" flame for the Holy Year 2009
in front of St. Paul's statue
St. Paul Outside the Walls, Rome

Catholic Journalists Meet in Charlotte

Catholic Journalists of U.S., Canada Meet in Charlotte

About 300 Catholic journalists—writers, editors, bloggers, TV and film folks, communications directors, et al.—gathered in Charlotte, N.C., June 18-20, for the Catholic Media Conference. CMC is the annual convention of the Catholic Press Association of the U.S. and Canada and of the Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals. Participants came from dioceses, religious orders, and organizations such as the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Near Eastern Welfare Association, Propagation of the Faith, Catholic Relief Services, tour companies, and printers from Alaska to Florida, from San Diego to New England, and from Canada.

The Charlotte skyline from my hotel window

There were also several foreign participants, such as a rep from the German Episcopal Conference, and most notably Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, who always either attends or sends his deputy.

Keynote addresses

Major addresses were given at dinners by Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, president of the USCCB; Heather King, well known writer and blogger; and Helen Alvaré, law professor at George Mason University and formerly the USCCB’s spokesman on life issues. All three speeches were very well received. In addition, Abp. Celli spoke at one of the workshops.

Abp. Kurtz of Louisville

Abp. Kurtz reminded the Catholic communicators that they share in the Church’s mission of evangelization, which sometimes includes speaking hard truths, but always with love, for which he thanked the journalists. See http://www.archlou.org/2014/06/18/catholic-press-and-the-new-evangelization/; and http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1402542.htm

Citing Pope Francis’s concerns, Abp. Celli said that the Church’s biggest challenge today is to present her maternal face. Catholic media, he said, are part of that presentation by how they present the Church’s teachings and activities; Catholic communicators “share the Gospel message through our personal and professional lives.” Communications networks, he said, are constructed of people, not wires. See http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1402576.htm

Ms. King charmed her audience by speaking directly from her heart as a woman who’s been deeply wounded in life and is finding healing because she’s found Christ. “How can you live in this world with some kind of integrity?” she asked; then answered, “It’s all in the Gospels.” Christ on the cross is the ultimate expression of the human condition. The Catholic Church, she said, is the “one place that has truly welcomed me and loved me and allowed me to flower as a human being and as a woman.” See http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1402596.htm
 

Ms. Alvaré addressed the mainstream media and our secular culture’s presentation of what women are concerned about, contrasting that with the teachings of the Church. See http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1402625.htm.

Helen Alvare

In particular, she assaulted the views of Planned Parenthood and the Obama Administration. She urged the Catholic media to communicate the Church’s “amazing teaching” about marriage, sex, and parenting. “Sociological research,” she said, “is so supportive of what we teach.” She also touched on religious freedom, insisting that the Church must effectively show society what she does with the freedom she lays claim to. See

Eucharistic Liturgy

Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte (http://www.catholicnewsherald.com/component/content/article/42-news/rokstories/5739-bishop-jugis-preaches-seek-first-the-love-of-god), Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of Charleston (http://www.catholicnewsherald.com/component/content/article/53-news/roknewspager-local/5739-bishop-jugis-preaches-seek-first-the-love-of-god?showall=&start=3), and Abp. Celli presided at the CMC liturgies at Charlotte’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Peter’s Church. All gave much appreciated homilies. The various priests attending, as many as eight on Thursday, concelebrated, including such luminaries as Msgr. Owen Campion of Our Sunday Visitor and Fr. Tom Rosica of Salt + Light.

Abp. Celli with your humble blogger before Mass on June 20

One of the highlights of the CMC every year is the presentation of the St. Francis de Sales Award, the highest honor given by the Catholic Press Association in recognition of journalistic excellence. It went this year to Jim Lackey, a 40-year veteran of the Catholic press, especially with Catholic News Service since 1979, in tribute to “the first-rate quality of his reporting and editing and the wide reach of [his] work.”  Runners-up were film guru Sr. Rose Pacatte, DSP, and Bob Lockwood, recently retired from Our Sunday Visitor and the diocese of Pittsburgh.

Jim Lackey, 2014 winner
of the "Franny"

Workshops

Fr. Mike Mendl represented the Salesians in general and Salesian Bulletin U.S.A. in particular at CMC. He took in two or three workshops a day on Thursday and Friday of the couple of dozen on the agenda.

One workshop by Fr. Matt Malone, editor of America, was about crafting an editorial approach suited to our age both ecclesially and politically. He maintains that Catholic media have to evangelize, be prophetic, and build communion. What we communicate is inseparable from how we communicate it:  the Truth we communicate is Love.

Chris Gunty, editor of Baltimore’s Catholic Review, led a workshop on a flexible approach to the changing media landscape. It’s critical that our publications use multiple platforms (e.g., print, Website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and blogs) to reach multiple audiences (differing ages, genders, regions, ethnic backgrounds, etc.). He defined the core Catholic message as moving people toward Christ by “informing, teaching, inspiring, and engaging them through all forms of media.” What one does must always be tested, evaluated, and adapted to circumstances.

Another workshop, offered by law professor Michael Scaperlanda, aimed to educate the journalists about current trends in law and religious freedom issues.

CRS panelists: Ron Lajoie, Kerry Weber, John Feister, J.D. Long, and moderator Kim Pozniak

Each year Catholic Relief Services offers two journalists a trip to one of the developing world’s hot spots. One workshop brought together the four most recent fellowship recipients, Kerry Weber of America and Ron Lajoie of Catholic New York, who went to Rwanda in 2013, and John Feister of Franciscan Media and J.D. Long-Garcia of The Tidings (Los Angeles), who went to Niger in 2012. They described in words and images what they saw and heard, especially the very impressive work being done by the Catholic Church in such places, and how their fellowship has broadened their outlook as journalists covering the Third World.

The last workshop was given by two reporters from Charlotte’s Catholic News Herald on how to use Tumblr with one’s reporting: a platform with many advantages, easily customized and integrated with other platforms, and “fantastic” for multiple contributors.

In addition, early on Thursday morning there was a CPA business meeting, and on Friday afternoon about a dozen journalists from the Eastern Region met for a roundtable discussion of a few matters, including evaluating CMC 2014.

On Friday afternoon, Catholic News Service screened a new documentary called Voices of Vatican II in which ten or so surviving participants (both bishops and periti, including Pope Benedict) describe their experience at the council in interviews. Slightly less than an hour long, it’s excellently done and will be available for purchase by the end of the year (www.usccbpublishing.org). Highly recommended!

Professor Michael Scaperlanda speaks about the current situation
of religious liberty in the U.S.

Awards

At the CPA closing dinner on Friday, June 20, awards for the last year’s outstanding publications were announced: newspapers, magazines, Web pages, and books. The hundreds of printed announcements take 36 pages of the CPA’s tabloid, The Catholic Journalist.

Our two provinces are proud to say that the Salesian Bulletin U.S.A. won three awards (not too bad out of just five entries). These included

-- 2d place for best feature article in a religious order magazine, “Salesians Educating and Evangelizing: Salesian Ministry in Various U.S. Contexts,” by J.C. Montenegro, Sr. Loretta DeDomenicis, FMA, Sr. Juanita Chavez, FMA, and Fr. Jim Heuser, SDB, SB Spring 2013. The judges noted: “The focus on youth serving youth makes this submission have a unique angle. The writing is smooth and fluid.”

-- 3d place for best essay in a religious order magazine, “Just Don’t Get Caught,” by Fr. Mike Mendl, SDB, SB Spring 2013: “An important modern issue, cheating, is wrestled with here, with clarity and thoughtfulness. Intelligently written and conceived.”

--Honorable mention for best essay in a religious order magazine. “Holiness in Don Bosco’s Style: Occupational Hazard,” by Paula Rondon-Burgos and the ANS staff, SB Late Winter 2013: “An inspiring examination of a level of busy-ness many readers can relate to, with pragmatic insights. Ms. Rondon-Burgos’s smile is as brilliant as her subject’s!”

(Thanks to Julie Asher of Catholic News Service for some of the material on the major speeches.)