MANDATUM NOVUM DO VOBIS…

Here, in English translation, is an excerpt from Pope Francis’ homily in the  youth incarceration center for the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper this Holy Thursday:

 

“…we don’t have to wash each other’s feet each day. So what does this mean? That we have to help each other…sometimes I would get angry with one someone, but we must let it go and if they ask a favor, do it!

Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty, as a priest and bishop I must be at your service. But it is a duty that comes from my heart and a duty I love. I love doing it because this is what the Lord has taught me. But you too must help us and help each other, always. And thus in helping each other we will do good for each other.”

 

It strikes me that this message to imprisoned youth is similar to the word given by God (aka, George Burns) in Oh, God!:  “It can work.  And be kind to one another.”

The New Covenant is indeed simple:  “Love one another as I have loved you.”  The Original Covenant is also simple:  “Love the LORD your God with all your heart…Love your neighbor…Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.”  NOT easy—just simple.  And we don’t do it—why?  Because we don’t get it?  Or, perhaps, because we do??  Let’s try a little helping, a little forgiveness.  It can work…

THE WEEK OF WEEKS

I've had problems with access and have not been able to write on the blog for several days now.  I hope the situation will be corrected soon for my study's laptop computer.

Meanwhile, a blessed Holy Week to all.  Today in Mobile we celebrate the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral, which features the blessing of all anointing oils that will be used in our Archdiocese this year.  Priests also renew their priestly promises, and may we all live them faithfully in Him.

REFLECTIONS ON MINISTRY AND TEACHING

Faced with Catholics who love the church but who hold dissenting views, Wuerl said, “In the pulpit, we’re supposed to present the teaching with all of its unvarnished clarity, but when you step out of the pulpit, you have to meet people where they are and try to walk with them.

This comment comes in the course of an interview with National Catholic Reporter's John Allen and others in Rome, as the Congregations (meetings of cardinals before the actual conclave) are about to begin.

It is crucial to his style as a "centrist" in the American Catholic Church (I guess it's no accident he's the Archbishop of Washington, DC) and highly thought of by Pope Benedict XVI (he was named "general secretary" of the last bishops' synod, on the new evangelization).

But his thinking mirrors that of a comment made years ago by the Catholic novelist Graham Greene, who said something to the effect:  You priests are harsh beyond belief when you preach in the pulpit, but you are human and understanding in wonderful ways in the confessional.  The trouble is, we novelists write in the confessional, and you priests judge us from the pulpit.
Wuerl's approach resonates also with that of the patron saint of parish priests, St Jean Vianney.  A parishioner of his was asked once if the Cure of Ars preached much, and the response was, "Oh, yes--long sermons:  always about hell!"  Yet in the confessional (his favorite place to minister) he would often impose penances that he himself would perform on the penitent's behalf.

He understood; Greene understood; Wuerl understands.

AND SO IT BEGINS...

On the Vatican's website today is posted the following notice:

AVVISO DELL’UFFICIO DELLE CELEBRAZIONI LITURGICHE

MERCOLEDÌ DELLE CENERI - SANTA MESSA CELEBRATA DAL SANTO PADRE BENEDETTO XVI
Mercoledì 13 febbraio 2013, alle ore 17, nella Basilica Vaticana, il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI celebrerà la Santa Messa con il rito di benedizione e di imposizione delle ceneri.

[Wednesday 13 February 2013, at 5:00 pm, in the Vatican Basilica, the Holy Father Benedict XVI will celebrate Holy Mass with the Rite of Benediction and the imposition of ashes.]


This doesn't sound too dramatic, until you remember that the tradition of the popes is to begin Ash Wednesday evening with a procession from Sant' Anselmo on the Aventine Hill to Santa Sabina, the first of the "Station Churches," for Mass and imposition of ashes.  And in fact it was so announced, only a few days ago, on 29 January.  So Pope Benedict is pulling away from the responsibilities of the Chair of Peter already, it seems...

PS TO THE ABOVE POST

If what I was speculating above were to come to pass, it would give a whole new meaning to "World Youth Day."

Alternatively, it's also possible that WYD (or in Italian GMG:  Giornata Mondiale del Gioventu) might wind up being a homecoming...

THE LAST HURRAH

 o

It is stunning news which comes today, that Pope Benedict XVI, effective the end of February, will become the first Pope since St Celestine V (end of the 13th century) to resign.  I don't recall writing about it earlier, but I made no secret of my judgment that Benedict's health was very poor, based on my seeing him last month at a General Audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall during my visit to Italy.  There were several clues that morning:

He came in 10 minutes late for the audience, something he normally would never do.
His Italian, once notably "Germanic" in pronunciation and for me very easy to listen to and understand, was this time slurred and very difficult for me to catch.  This was true, sadly, even when he offered a "summary" of his address in English.  Ironically, I understood him best when he did his "summary" in Spanish.
He moved slowly and looked very thin and haggard of face.
He needed several drinks of water to get through even the actual (Italian) speech.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that there is something going on here beyond merely the aging process...

In 2004 I found myself in Rome during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, the document on ecumenism.  The events culminated in Evening Prayer in St Peter's, which I attended.  On that occasion, Pope John Paul II was literally wheeled in, and he began an address to the participants of the event.  But after only a few sentences, he started choking and gasping.  Cardinal Kasper had to finish the speech for him.  I knew then that things were not good, and from that time on we had Pope John Paul II in our weekend Prayers of the Faithful.  He died only a few months later, in April 2005.  It should be obvious that I write this recollection because my heart is perceiving a connection.  It makes me wonder, too, if Benedict was a friend who encouraged John Paul to resign because of his health (an encouragement, of course, rejected the the Pope).

If there is one great regret in Pope Benedict for his resignation, I believe it is his not being able to preside over the canonization of Bl John Henry Newman (a canonization which, when it happens, I will swim the Atlantic if necessary to attend). 

Some time in Lent a conclave will be summoned to elect a new pontiff.  Just a suggestion:  you might want to keep your eyes turned toward Manila...

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE: WHERE AND WHY?

I will be heading away for some private down time—to Assisi and Rome.  Yes, I’ve been there before (over 40 times to Assisi, for instance).  Why am I going again?  For that matter, why do I go at all?
 

For me, it’s a chance to have a breather from the sturm und drang of ministry—a chance to re-charge.  But why do I go to those places in particular?  I cannot answer without being more specific:  the churches of San Damiano in Assisi, and Sant’ Agostino, San Paolo fuori le Mura, and Il Gesù in Rome.  And I must also observe that it’s why I return to Chicago every summer—yes, to visit friends and family there, but my Job #1 is a section of Resurrection Cemetery in the suburb of Worth.  It’s all about prayer and connectivity.

My Dad always loved the Jesuits, and it was his encouragement that got me to St Ignatius HS.  Of course, he loved Notre Dame too, and it was his encouragement that got me there, but that’s a different story.  I remember him and myself together when I pray the Rosary in Il Gesù—the final resting place of St Ignatius Loyola and of (a part of, anyway) St Francis Xavier.  And I remember being in that church for the incredible Mass commemorating the 30 day anniversary of the martyrdom of the Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989.  I’m impressed by nothing in that church so much as the associations of family, witness and prayer.  And so I go back.]

That leads me to St Paul’s.  For whatever reason, in 1989, when I’d returned to seminary, my Dad who had died in 1986 was heavy on my mind, and so I went to this church to pray for him on his birthday.  Two things are true that will stay with me forever:  I prayed the Rosary for him in the Eucharistic chapel which was where Ignatius and his early companions spent a night in vigil, after which they took the vows that formed them into the original Jesuits.  But I had an epiphany that day at that church with a Gypsy woman.  She was begging, using her baby and toddler as “props.”  She asked of me, and I told her I’d see when I came back out.  And leaving the church after my Rosary for him, I wondered what my Dad might do, or want me to do.  So I sat down and talked with the Gypsy.  She was a beggar (a professional one), but she was not a thief.  And the children were charming.  I talked with her, talked with the little one, held the baby, and gave her some money, and she was thankful—and I’d touched the face of God.  And so I go back.

My Mom died in 2005, but she lamented over her kids enough to mimic St Monica, the Mother of the famous sinner-turned-bishop/theologian, St Augustine.  And her remains (transferred from a church in Ostia, outside Rome) are in a chapel near the high altar, to the left.  And for Mom I also pray a Rosary there.  Part of the original tombstone from Ostia is on that wall, as well as her sarcophagus.  I miss her as well (we’re truly orphans when both parents die, no matter how old we are).  And so I go back.
San Damiano is my own personal connection from the very first time I set foot in there, in 1983.  I was overcome with the prayerfulness of the place, and when I had the chance I would stay for Evening Prayer with the friars—a spiritual experience not to be missed.  It enriches me for its simplicity and beauty (like the Evening Prayer I used to enjoy with the Communità di Sant’ Egidio).  And so I go back.

The cemetery is where my Father and Mother and baby brother are buried.  I trim around the headstones, place roses, and I sit in my portable chair and pray the Rosary for them.  It’s what I do, who I am thanks to them, and I will continue to hold on.
Why do I go back?  How could I not?  We are a sacramental people, after all, and we instinctively understand the power and importance of things and place.  Are my prayers “better” in those places?  No—but they strengthen me more for their association, and that’s reason enough to return.

There are many churches that I love in these two places, churches that I have not mentioned in this context:  San Francesco and Santa Chiara in Assisi; St Peter’s, St Mary Major, St Prassede, St Sabina, and more in Rome (all of which have their own power over me, but different).  They are wonderful, but (no, not even St Peter’s) essential to my spiritual reality.  I’ll visit the others, to be sure, but don’t have to, not in the same way that I have to pray in those other churches.

And so I go back--of course I do.  Where do you go?