Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

(Continuing Fr. Kevin’s reflections of late…)

Several years ago, I had charge of a young adults group in Washington D.C. One Thursday evening we choose as our activity a conversation in which each member presented two or three of his or her favorite saints to the group. The Blessed Mother was taken as a given, but beyond that the field for discussion was wide open.  The saints with the most interest were St. Joseph followed closely by St. Therese of Lisieux, and there were others.

Now, I am very excited to hear about saints and especially about ones who are little known. A young lawyer in the group said that he carried a holy card in his wallet of his favorite saint. Drawing the wallet from his back pocket we watched with expectation as he produced a holy card that looked like a print of a small watercolor. The image was… St. Anna Wang. I along with the others was stumped, having never heard of her and we listened. Anna, he explained, was a teenage martyr from China who was killed in the early twentieth century.

China has long been thought of as a protective culture wary of outside influences. High School history classes in our “western world”, while considering Chinese history, introduced to our vocabulary the word “xenophobia”, a word meaning fear of foreigners. The iconic monument of China in our collective cultural consciousness is the Great Wall. Walls provide protection from outside threats. From time to time news headlines speculate over Chinese policy, wondering if certain policies are raising again a specter of xenophobia.

The Gospel comes to us all from outside, from the Heart of Christ to all of us by way of the first Apostles and Disciples who gathered around Jesus in the Holy Land. The first archeological record of Christian missionaries in China is recorded on a stone stele or column dating to the 8^th century. These stone columns were used to record decisions of the emperor. The inscription describes the work of Syrian monks in the 7^th century and recommends the Christian religion as good. China sometimes softened on the acceptance of foreign influence, but often hardened again.

The early 20^th century saw what history books describe as the Boxer Rebellion in China. The “Boxers” originated as a secret society that sought to protect China from interests of outside nations that were viewed as imperialistic. In and around 1900 China saw a heightening of violence against foreign diplomats and embassies. Some also considered Chinese Christians to be a threat because of their association with this foreign “philosophy” that had ties to European missionaries. Throughout the centuries at times of xenophobic revival tens of thousands of Catholic, Orthodox, and protestant Christians were put to death in the anti-foreigner hysteria. Most of these were Chinese.

Anna Wang was martyred in 1900 at the age of 14. Her parents were Catholics and prior to her own death she was witness to the deaths of other Christians, including a mother and young son. When her turn came, Anna refused to renounce her faith saying: “Do not touch me; I am a Christian. I prefer to die rather than give up my faith.” The executioner proceeded to cut off Anna’s right arm with a sword; he then indicated that she could escape death, if only she would give up the faith. Anna replied “The door of Heaven is now open.” With this she bowed her head and called on the Name of Jesus three times. The swordsman then chopped off her head.

This brave young woman who persevered in her love for Jesus in the midst of terror was canonized by Bl. John Paul II in the Great Jubilee year 2000 on October 1^st. The first of October is the feast of St. Therese who championed the spirituality of childlike confidence in God’s goodness and who herself had desires of being a missionary contemplative in China.  The canonization ceremonies raised to the honors of the altar 120 Chinese martyrs, of these, Pope John Paul drew attention to two in his homily; one of these was Anna whom the pope reminded the crowd was “radiant” before her persecutors, confident that her Lord Jesus Christ had indeed prepared a home for her in heaven. The other was a young man of 18 years, St. Chi Zhuzi who told his executioners as they prepared to flay him: “Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian”

In hearing of the witness of this young woman and man, we are reminded of the priority of faith and the joy of abandonment to Jesus Christ. From their example we see a courage that invites us beyond the frivolity which is often proposed to us in youth to a seriousness of purpose and loving adventure in Christ that glimpses with lively anticipation the joy of fulfillment.

We ask the intercession of Anna Wang, Chi Zhuzi, St. Therese and other young holy people who have gone before us on the Way. We ask them to pray for our young people and for the Christians of China. These saints show to us the great result of virtuous youth who live in communion with Jesus and who strive for virtue.

For we who are older, recall the words of Psalm 103, reminding us that through the Lord’s power our “youth is renewed like the eagle’s”. The eagle was a symbol of perennial vigor. Let us then not bow our heads in defeated shame at the memory of past sins and time wasted but in reverence, like Anna, before the King of kings and Lord of Mercy who always promises a new beginning and a heavenly home to those who follow Him.

Announcing a new 12-step peer program to help those who self-mutilate in order to cope with life’s stresses: SMA (self-mutilators anonymous).

All people are welcome to join together to explore newer, healthier ways of coping.

Meetings in October are Sundays at 1:30pm (10/6, 13, 20 & 27…a permanent date/time will be established by the group in November)

at the Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights, 163 Columbia Turnpike (Rtes. 9 & 20), East Greenbush (across from K-mart)

Urban-dwellers might hear the words “Guardian Angels” and remember having seen some. This was not a mystical experience. The Guardian Angels were formed over 30 years ago and are famous for their red berets. Their service is one of vigilance on neighborhood streets where they brave themselves to break up violence and report criminal activity. They seemed to some to be vigilantes and they have been, although not in a negative sense. The one who keeps vigil is the one who watches.

The Guardian Angels whom minister to each soul and whose feast the Church celebrates on October 2nd also keep vigil. These mysterious beings that are a gift to us are often last thought of when our days of nursery and primary education begin to wane. Their introduction to us often takes place in two ways.

First, they belong to the category of saints and holy beings to whom rhyming prayers are addressed. An Irish-American woman in my undergraduate days said that women in her family prayed thus to Jesus’ grandmother: “St. Ann, St. Ann, find me a man.” An Italian-American monsignor, with car trouble, got into the car saying: “Mother Cabrini fixa my machini.” More universal in our language is the prayer to the Guardian Angel:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, To whom God’s love commits me here, Ever this day, be at my side, To light and guard, Rule and guide.

Rhymes can be helpful and most prayerfully uttered, but they can also become a kind of kitsch-in- words in which something is whimsically recalled, but not taken seriously. The sing-song of the playful phrases can remain merely nostalgic.

Another introduction to the Guardian Angels was the work of an illustrator. Remember the picture of an angel looming above a tattered wooden bridge on which a Hummel-like boy and girl crossed a roaring creek? This could be confusing to the imagination. Were these two children, crossing the bridge in a dark wood, Hansel and Gretel?  Yet, we don’t recall an angel from Hansel and Gretel hip-checking the evil crone into the furnace. Why are there not two Guardian Angels looming above the bridge scene?

Each of us has a Guardian Angel from the beginning of life. What tends to be forgotten in the rhyme and art of the Guardian Angels is that the children stand for the childlikeness to which all Christians are called. In the gospel for the feast we read:

“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” (Matt 18:3-5, 10)

Various saints meditated upon the reality of the Guardian Angel’s presence and prayed prayers of intercession taking into account these beings who watch over us, who see and know our faces and who see God. Blessed Peter Faber, roommate of St. Francis Xavier at the University of Paris and one of the first Jesuits, prayed to his Guardian Angel always before preaching and to the Guardian Angels of all who would hear him preach. St. Jose Maria Escriva was said to silently greet the Guardian angel of all whom he met.

Our Guardian angels are concerned for us as wayfarers, as people on a journey that is sometimes dangerous, on which we can lose course. The permanent home of the angels is our destination; it is heaven where Jesus Christ has ascended, He who has taken our nature and flesh to himself so that heaven may be our home too. May these messengers of God guide us in the ways of humble adoration before the God who seeks for us, for our happiness.

Fr. Kevin’s wanderings continued…

Saturdays of my childhood began with the Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny and the rest. My father liked those old cartoons. Saturday afternoon was my mother’s time for watching “Westerns”. Mom came from a small mountain town and her father and relatives had horses and livestock. The Lone Ranger was a favorite for us to watch; part of Rossini’s William Tell Overture played as opening music and the cool surname of the actor who played Tanto was Silverheels.  I remember also Wyatt Earp, “brave, courageous, and bold”, as the theme song went. The Earp character would have many later admirers via the film Tombstone.

The Westerns are no longer a staple of Saturdays, but I was reminded of them so clearly when on Saturday morning September 14^th, 2013 I read about a beatification. On that Saturday Cardinal Amato, representing Pope Francis, beatified a priest of Argentina–Padre José Gabriel Brochero. Blessed Jose Gabriel is known in Argentina as the “cowboy priest”. This gaucho, as local cattle-herders are known, served a large parish spread over miles of mountainous terrain.

Bl. Jose showed bravery in his first years as a priest by ministering to victims of a cholera epidemic in the city of Cordoba, Argentina. At 29 he was assigned to St. Albert, a remote parish numbering about ten thousand souls with neither schools nor roads. Padre Jose went on the back of a mule along the mountains to care for his flock, carrying a Mass kit and an image of the Blessed Mother. His flock was, in a sense, “lost”, so remote were they from the larger society. Father Jose said of his people that “they were abandoned by everyone, but not by God”. Early in his tenure, he desired spiritual renewal for his parish and so he led a group across mountains in a snowstorm to a retreat being held at Cordoba on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. This beginning in prayer produced much fruit in the parish.

His priestly ministry drew him to the people, to “go out”, as Jesus and his apostles went out to where the people were to be found. This “going out” involved risk: the danger of terrain, long days far from home, and the unexpected. Pope Francis has especially encouraged priests and generally all Christians to get out on the roads and into the public squares as a necessary first step in evangelization, in sharing Christ.

Blessed Jose Gabriel was not unknown to the public for his incarnational way of ministering. He worked alongside his people.  A Cordoba newspaper wrote about this priest’s way of serving in an 1887 article:

“He practices the gospel. Are you missing a carpenter? He’s a carpenter. Are you missing a laborer? He’s a laborer. He rolls up his cassock wherever he is, takes the shovel or hoe and opens a public road in 15 days aided by his parishioners.”

In these tasks Bl. Jose found a space of communion in labor with his parishioners and a solid imitation of his patron, St. Joseph. He worked to build roads, schools, and to get mail and telegraph couriers for the good of the people. In his letter to those gathered for the beatification ceremony Pope Francis said: “This shepherd who smelled of sheep became poor among the poor,”

Bl. Jose Gabriel was born in 1840, the same year of birth as St. Damien of Molokai. Like Damien, Jose Gabriel served those who were considered untouchable, the lepers, and like Damien he died a leper. He continued to pray and offer Mass although ill and blind. His “going out” was a complete emptying of self. Pope Francis wrote: “Brochero did not stay in the parish offices: he would exhaust himself riding his mule and he ended up being sick with leprosy.” Bl. Jose Gabriel died January 26, 1914.

The beatification ceremony at Cordoba was attended by close to 150,000 people, including three thousand gauchos wearing the traditional ponchos of the Argentine cowboy. This priest was a lone ranger when he had to be and, like his Divine Master, was brave, courageous, and bold.

Long may his story be told!

(On the occasion of the Pope’s Vigil for Peace, the text of his homily:)

“And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:12, 18, 21, 25). The biblical account of the beginning of the history of the world and of humanity speaks to us of a God who looks at creation, in a sense contemplating it, and declares: “It is good”. This allows us to enter into God’s heart and, precisely from within him, to receive his message.

We can ask ourselves: what does this message mean? What does it say to me, to you, to all of us?

1. It says to us simply that this, our world, in the heart and mind of God, is the “house of harmony and peace”, and that it is the space in which everyone is able to find their proper place and feel “at home”, because it is “good”. All of creation forms a harmonious and good unity, but above all humanity, made in the image and likeness of God, is one family, in which relationships are marked by a true fraternity not only in words: the other person is a brother or sister to love, and our relationship with God, who is love, fidelity and goodness, mirrors every human relationship and brings harmony to the whole of creation. God’s world is a world where everyone feels responsible for the other, for the good of the other. This evening, in reflection, fasting and prayer, each of us deep down should ask ourselves: Is this really the world that I desire? Is this really the world that we all carry in our hearts? Is the world that we want really a world of harmony and peace, in ourselves, in our relations with others, in families, in cities, in and between nations? And does not true freedom mean choosing ways in this world that lead to the good of all and are guided by love?

2. But then we wonder: Is this the world in which we are living? Creation retains its beauty which fills us with awe and it remains a good work. But there is also “violence, division, disagreement, war”. This occurs when man, the summit of creation, stops contemplating beauty and goodness, and withdraws into his own selfishness.

When man thinks only of himself, of his own interests and places himself in the centre, when he permits himself to be captivated by the idols of dominion and power, when he puts himself in God’s place, then all relationships are broken and everything is ruined; then the door opens to violence, indifference, and conflict. This is precisely what the passage in the Book of Genesis seeks to teach us in the story of the Fall: man enters into conflict with himself, he realizes that he is naked and he hides himself because he is afraid (cf. Gen 3: 10), he is afraid of God’s glance; he accuses the woman, she who is flesh of his flesh (cf. v. 12); he breaks harmony with creation, he begins to raise his hand against his brother to kill him. Can we say that from harmony he passes to “disharmony”? No, there is no such thing as “disharmony”; there is either harmony or we fall into chaos, where there is violence, argument, conflict, fear ….

It is exactly in this chaos that God asks man’s conscience: “Where is Abel your brother?” and Cain responds: “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). We too are asked this question, it would be good for us to ask ourselves as well: Am I really my brother’s keeper? Yes, you are your brother’s keeper! To be human means to care for one another! But when harmony is broken, a metamorphosis occurs: the brother who is to be cared for and loved becomes an adversary to fight, to kill. What violence occurs at that moment, how many conflicts, how many wars have marked our history! We need only look at the suffering of so many brothers and sisters. This is not a question of coincidence, but the truth: we bring about the rebirth of Cain in every act of violence and in every war. All of us! And even today we continue this history of conflict between brothers, even today we raise our hands against our brother. Even today, we let ourselves be guided by idols, by selfishness, by our own interests, and this attitude persists. We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death! Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!

[Off-script: After the chaos of the flood, when it stopped raining, a rainbow appeared and the dove returned with an olive branch. Today, I think also of that olive tree which representatives of various religions planted in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires in 2000, asking that there be no more chaos, asking that there be no more war, asking for peace.]

3. At this point I ask myself: Is it possible to change direction? Can we get out of this spiral of sorrow and death? Can we learn once again to walk and live in the ways of peace? Invoking the help of God, under the maternal gaze of the Salus Populi Romani [patroness of Rome], Queen of Peace, I say: Yes, it is possible for everyone! From every corner of the world tonight, I would like to hear us cry out: Yes, it is possible for everyone! Or even better, I would like for each one of us, from the least to the greatest, including those called to govern nations, to respond: Yes, we want it! My Christian faith urges me to look to the Cross. How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God’s reply: violence is not answered with violence, death is not answered with the language of death. In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken. This evening, I ask the Lord that we Christians, and our brothers and sisters of other religions, and every man and woman of good will, cry out forcefully: violence and war are never the way to peace! Let everyone be moved to look into the depths of his or her conscience and listen to that word which says: Leave behind the self-interest that hardens your heart, overcome the indifference that makes your heart insensitive towards others, conquer your deadly reasoning, and open yourself to dialogue and reconciliation. Look upon your brother’s sorrow and do not add to it, stay your hand, rebuild the harmony that has been shattered; and all this achieved not by conflict but by encounter! May the noise of weapons cease! War always marks the failure of peace, it is always a defeat for humanity. Let the words of Pope Paul VI resound again: “No more one against the other, no more, never! … war never again, never again war!” (Address to the United Nations, 1965). “Peace expresses itself only in peace, a peace which is not separate from the demands of justice but which is fostered by personal sacrifice, clemency, mercy and love” (World Day of Peace Message, 1975). Forgiveness, dialogue, reconciliation these are the words of peace, in beloved Syria, in the Middle East, in all the world! Let us pray for reconciliation and peace, let us work for reconciliation and peace, and let us all become, in every place, men and women of reconciliation and peace!

Così sia.