The third pillar of Discipleship and Stewardship is Formation.  The Synod describes this pillar with the following words:

            Formation – to study the Bible and learn more about Jesus and our Catholic faith;

Having worked with seminarians for most of my time as a priest, I have come to appreciate the Church’s broad view of the term ‘formation.’  In the short definition given by Synod, one might think that formation is just another word for study, especially since the definition uses those two words of study and learn.

When the Church speaks about formation, however, she does so in a more all-encompassing way.  When we look at the word formation, we think about the process of creating something, like an artist forming some raw material into a piece of art.  There is a development and a transformation that is taking place.  This is the same when we speak about formation in our faith.  Though it is important to learn facts about our Catholic belief, that is only a part of what formation aims at.  Under the Lord’s guidance, we desire to be formed to be more and more like Him, which entails the transformation of our entire lives, not just our minds.

The definition given by the Synod explicitly references the Bible, as the Sacred Scriptures are a special means by which this transformation is effected in us.  We learn more about who Jesus is through our study of the Word of God, and that learning is at the service of our entering into a deeper relationship with Him, a relationship of friendship.  A true friend would never be content just knowing facts about another person.  No, a true friend seeks to spend time with the other, sharing on a deeper level their hopes and desires.  As is usually the case, the more time we spend with a friend, the more we begin to direct our lives based on that friendship – how we spend our time, what excites us , what saddens us, what we think about, and how we act. 

Any formation, therefore, that takes place here at the parish should have that in mind, namely fostering a deeper relationship with the person of Jesus.  As mentioned, studying the Bible is an important means for that, and we have a few different Bible studies that are taking place in our parish, thanks be to God.  As you likely know, our parish has a subscription to the online formation platform called FORMED.  There are a variety of programs available for every level, in addition to offering audiobooks, talks from Catholic speakers, and Catholic movies.  Among the topics included are some series on prayer, which is another form of formation.  By spending time with the Lord in prayer, our hearts will be formed to be more and more like His.

As you can see, formation is meant to be understood in a broad way, as anything that serves to help us deepen our relationship with Jesus and His Church, so that, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can be transformed to live in greater likeness to Him, who has called us to friendship.  Perhaps the words of St. Paul best express what we hope to accomplish through this pillar of formation: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20)

Father Alford    

Feast Day: October 20^th

The year was 1939. It was July, six weeks before Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. A young college student by the name of Karol Wojtyła was one year into his philosophy studies at the Jagellonian University in Krakow. He was a vibrant young man, having joined a theatre group with other students and his precocious ability with languages and love for athletics and the outdoors were already in full bloom. However, during that summer of 1939, with the world watching Germany gearing up for war, the man who would become pope decades later found himself hundreds of kilometers East of Krakow at a compulsory military training camp at Ozomla (nowadays Ukraine, then still part of Poland). He notably refused to fire a weapon, willing to serve his country, but not by violence.

That same summer, just one hundred kilometers south of Karol, a young diocesan priest was doing the simple work of pastoring a couple of parishes in the Archdiocese of Lwów. This would become Lviv, Ukraine, after the war when that country was resurrected, though as part of the Soviet Union, but for now this also was part of Poland. He was the son of a Byzantine Rite deacon, Vasyl, and mother, Maria, having grown up in the further-south city of Mykolaiv with his five siblings. He had entered seminary in 1931 and had been ordained a priest on June 7^th 1936. Fr. Oleksa Zaryckyi was first assigned as an administrator of the small parishes in Stynawa Wyżna (St. Nicholas the Wonderworker) and Nizhna Stynava (St. Michael the Archangel) though by 1939 he had been moved to the Parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Zolochiv.  I include a picture of this Church since it is simply picturesque!  It was built in 1846 and still stands there today!

His early parishes loved him. He was gentle, humble, pious, a good and holy priest and though the War was horrible, he was able to continue the simple work of being a pastor. That all changed when the war ended with the Soviet Union in control of the newly formed country of Ukraine. Fr. Oleksa refused to be joined to the Russian Orthodox Church – the national church allowed by the USSR – maintaining his allegiance to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and for this was arrested and sent first to prison in Złoczew, the released before being rearrested and imprisoned in Lwiw. The MGB (successor of the NKVD) sentenced him to a decade of forced labor in the Gulag, first in Irkutsk (near Mongolia), then Mordovia (East of Moscow), then Omsk (in Siberia). He was released in 1954 and exiled to Kazakhstan.

The records from his arrest and forced labor simply list years and cities, giving us very little sense of his life during that decade. We just know that he survived the Gulag, and as a priest there in Kazakhstan, was named the Greek Catholic Apostolic Administrator of Kazakhstan and Siberia, nicknamed the apostle of Siberia, a work he continued until 1963. Just to press pause and recognize that his flock was at least 150,000 faithful and 150 exiled priests, trying to cover an area of land not much smaller than all of North America. He traveled with just his passport, risking arrest everywhere he went, celebrating Mass or the Divine Liturgy – depending on the Rite practiced by whoever he was serving that day – and did so in houses, mines, wherever they could gather people together. He often skipped meals to keep giving people the sacraments. In May of 1962 was arrested in Karaganda, the charge was “vagrancy”, and sentenced to two years in the Dolinka settlement. He worked as a tailor, did what he could as a priest, but his health deteriorated and he perished in the camp “hospital” (quotation marks original in the records I used for this article).

But back to Karol Wojtyła, himself surviving the Nazi and Communist occupation of Poland, then elected Pope, and in 2001 for the second time setting foot on Ukrainian soil. He thus became the first Pope to set foot on Ukrainian soil (Martin I had been exiled to Cherson, on the Crimean peninsula, but after abdicating the papacy for Eugene I), and there he preached at the beatification of 25 Ukrainians, including our friend Fr. Oleksa:

Rebuild the temple of the Lord: this is the mission to which you have been called and to which you have devoted yourselves. My thoughts turn at this time to your communities, once scattered and sorely tried. In heart and in spirit I relive the unspeakable trials of all those who suffered not only physical exile and imprisonment, but public ridicule and violence because they chose not to renounce the faith. Here I wish to mention, among others, Blessed Oleksa Zarytsky, priest and martyr, who died in the gulag of Dolynka.

– Fr. Dominic has never been to Ukraine, or Siberia, but the kind of holiness exemplified by Bl. Oleksa Zarytsky is not only found in the communist gulag, but simply in the choice to love wherever we find ourselves. And, whenever he has operated from love, the same Holy Spirit that sanctified Fr. Oleksa is at work in him too.

The second pillar of Discipleship and Stewardship is Prayer.  The Synod describes this pillar with the following words:

Prayer – to provide well-prepared celebrations of the sacraments and
other occasions for prayer as signs of hope and paths of grace to
Heaven;

Since prayer and the sacraments are at the very heart of what we are about as Catholics, one might think that this should be the first pillar of discipleship.  While that is indeed true about the primacy of prayer, placing it as the second pillar is intentional.  If one were to come to our parish and encounter an environment that is not welcoming and not hospitable, chances are they may not stick around to experience prayer or the sacraments because they do not feel that they belong.  But once they have crossed through our doors and feel comfortable staying, they are ready to experience the gift of prayer and the sacraments in our church.

One tangible way in which I think we join these two pillars together is in the fact that our church is open throughout the day every day.  We unlock the doors one hour before the first Mass, which is 6 AM every day except Saturday, which is 7 AM.  We then lock the church after the final Mass of the day, which is usually around 6:00 PM, depending on the day.  Throughout the day, the church is available for anybody to stop in and spend some time in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  Making a visit to the Blessed Sacrament is a practice that has largely fallen out of practice, but it is something that I hope more people will consider working into their spiritual lives.

This pillar speaks about our parish providing “well-prepared celebrations of the sacraments.”  I believe we do that well here at the Cathedral.  Many of the people of our diocese associate the Cathedral with some of the bigger diocesan celebrations, such as the Chrism Mass, Ordinations, and Confirmations.  These are indeed powerful liturgies that highlight not just the beauty of this church, but also the richness of our liturgical celebrations.  We strive to celebrate our liturgies well and many people comment on their appreciation for these liturgies, whether it be a simple daily Mass or that glorious celebration of the Easter Vigil, and everything in between.

As I consider our Mass schedule here, I am especially mindful of our desire to be a place that offers opportunities that other parishes may not.  In particular, we offer a daily 5:15 PM Mass, which I know is appreciated by those who are not able to get to a morning Mass, or who may prefer to sleep in a little later!  We also have a Sunday evening Mass at 5:00 PM, which I know is a popular time for many throughout the area who may be travelling and are looking for a later alternative to get to Mass on Sunday.  Along those lines, I am perhaps most proud of the fact that we offer fairly convenient times for the Sacrament of Reconciliation every day, something I know many take advantage of.

While all of these aspects of the pillar of prayer are indeed for the benefit of our own parishioners, we are happy that this is a place where anybody can and should feel welcome to join for prayer and the sacraments.  This is something that makes the Cathedral so unique, and it is something we are happy to offer for anybody who comes through our doors.

Father Alford     

Having reflected on the primary work of hospitality, namely, invitation, we can now reflect on the more traditional understanding of that word, which is providing a welcoming environment for those who come to our parish.

One of the things that makes the Cathedral unique is that it is a church to which many visitors come.  First of all, we have visitors from area parishes who come to us for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the availability of our Mass and confession times.  I do not see these individuals so much as visitors as members of our local diocesan family.  Since the Cathedral is the mother church of the diocese, all of the faithful in the diocese should feel at home here.  This is something I love about our hosting Confirmations / First Holy Communions here.  Young people and their families from throughout our diocese get the opportunity to encounter this beautiful church, and in doing so, I hope they come to experience a sense of belonging to something bigger than their own parishes.  And for the children who receive these Sacraments of Initiation, they will always have a special sacramental connection to this church, one that I hope they cherish.  The team from the diocese, under the direction of Sister M. Clementia, FSGM, do a great job of demonstrating this pillar of hospitality for these groups when they come here.

We also get many visitors to our church who are not members of our diocese.  Some find themselves in town for a family event, others are in town to visit the Lincoln sites, and others are in town for various sporting events, just to name a few.  You can often tell who the visitors are when you see them looking around the church after Mass.  I have been very pleased to see some of our regular parishioners approach those visitors, welcoming them and even giving them some information about our church.  In case you are not aware, we have little pamphlets just inside of the church near the Atrium with information about the Cathedral, including some history and brief explanations of the various elements to be found in the church.  Feel free to introduce yourself to any of those visitors and offer them a pamphlet.  I know I have asked people from time to time if they are visitors, and they tell me: “We’re parishioners here.”  I have to swallow my pride in those moments, apologizing, but then realizing it is just an opportunity to get to know somebody I had not previously recognized.  So do not fear making a “mistake” by greeting someone who you think might be a visitor but actually is a regular here.  The very act of acknowledging and greeting another person is a very tangible sign of hospitality.

Much more can be said about how to be hospitable, but I think the core of this pillar is seeing in each person who comes through our doors a brother or sister in the Lord.  We belong to the same extended family, and it should be our joy to see them here, a joy which we can express by making eye contact, smiling, and making a simple greeting.  This is not limited to those official “greeters”, but is something about which we all should be proactive.   We rarely know the stories of the people with whom we worship, and you never know what burden they be bearing.  A simple kind acknowledgment, so easy for us to do, can do a long way in that person feeling seen, loved, and welcomed.

Father Alford     

Feast Day: October 6^th 

Admittedly, we do not know a lot of particulars about St. Mary Frances. She grew up in Naples in the early 1700s in a middle-class family (her father wove lace and/or sold clothing – carrying the fantastic title of “haberdasher” – which also brought in a decent income for his family), but they lived in a rough part of that city. Furthermore, though her mother was pious and patient, her father was a man quick to anger and harsh with his family, if not outright abusive to them. Her young life was marked by the traumatizing clash of a nominally Christian home with the very unchristian experience of incessant work and hard treatment even at a tender age. At 16 her father arranged for Anna Maria (her baptismal name) to marry a rich man from the area, though Anna protested that she wanted instead to enter the Third Order of St. Francis. 

She had gotten to know the friars there in Naples, part a branch of the Franciscans having been reformed by the great St. Peter of Alcantara back to a rigorous living of holy poverty. A certain Father Theophilus convinced Anna’s father to allow her to enter their order and so it happened on September 8^th, 1731. In a certain way, this transformed the rigors of her life into sweet sacrifices for the Lord. She still lived at her home, though now wearing the religious habit and having been given the new name of “Mary Francis of the Five Wounds”, a nod to her love of Our Lady, St. Francis, and the Passion of Christ. From that house that had been for her a place of great sadness and suffering, now she had won a measure of freedom in her father’s permission to enter the consecrated life, and all the hardships that remained were now more formally consecrated to Christ and could flower into works of charity and a deep life of prayer. 

In this Sister Mary Frances already shows us a way forward in those moments when any of us encounter suffering, whether inflicted on us, or just as part of living a human life. Can we consecrate those crosses? Can we carry them with love, let them lead us to generosity and charity rather than self-protection or anger? This is not an easy transformation! All of us carry wounds in our hearts, and they often feel like places where we can’t love as we want, or ought; places where we have been beat-down or broken, where it’s hard enough to just persevere with those pains, much less to discover freedom and generosity in those things. 

This was a long process for Sister Mary Frances. She spent a lot of time in prayer, and working with the poor, day by day stretching her heart to be able to love rather than hate, to give rather than protect herself. She got a spiritual director, and a confessor, who she went to frequently for counsel and forgiveness. Sometimes that walk with the Lord was lifegiving and beautiful, and sometimes her wounds were reopened. Some of those priests that gave her direction or the sacraments were harsh or clueless, they did not represent Christ well, and so the Heavenly Father’s face was again mis-represented. She endured physical pain at times too, reputedly feeling in her hands at least the pain of the Christ’s nails, and other ailments too – some of them healed at the intercession of St. Raphael, some of them which she had to bear with patience for her whole life. 

Eventually she and another Franciscan tertiary, Sister Maria Felice, moved into a home with a priest/chaplain living on the floor above (he, a pious man, must have been a healing example of priestly-fatherhood for her. Both sisters would generously take care of him over the coming years.) It was a simple family home, so they had to make do renovating some of the rooms to be their chapel and places for their work with the poor. Gradually, it was her charity and patience despite all the crosses she carried that led many to come to her for counsel and compassion. 38 years she lived in that little place at Vico Tre Re a Toledo (where a church now dedicated to her as a saint still stands) just encountering people who were hurting in different ways, and from a heart stretched by her own hurts, met every one of them with delight and love. 

She died on October 6, 1791, beloved by the townspeople and hailed immediately as a saint and exemplar of holiness. She would be canonized in 1867 (by Pope Pius IX), the first saint from Naples!

– Fr. Dominic takes one more lesson from Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds: contentment with the day’s labor. She did not accomplish much over her life. Lived with her crosses, loved those who were around her, prayed every day, and just that was enough to make her a great saint. No huge conversions, no changing world history, no transformation of the city of Naples … she just lived each day with as much love as she could muster from her encounters with Jesus in the Eucharist. What if we were content with the same? 

As promised, after introducing the Four Pillars of Stewardship and Discipleship, we are going to look at each of these pillars, reflecting on how they are currently being lived here at the Cathedral and where there may be room for growth.

When naming this pillar, the Synod states simply that hospitality calls for us “to invite people proactively to join us in prayer, especially Sunday Mass.”  Perhaps the first thing we think about when we hear hospitality is how we receive people who come to us, making them feel seen and welcomed.  That is important, but notice how the definition is not so much about welcoming as it is inviting.  A sign of hospitality is our willingness to extend the invitation for people to come to experience Jesus.  After all, this is what prayer is most fundamentally, having a personal relationship with Jesus.  The greatest prayer of all for us as Catholics is, of course, the Mass.

Putting the emphasis on invitation over simply welcoming is admittedly more intimidating.  For in welcoming people, the hard work has been done.  The other person has entered through our doors, and we just need to receive them with cheerfulness and gratitude.  As I said, that is indeed important.  But to go to a family member, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, and to actually invite them into something can be hard.  We fear being rejected, or we fear that we might not be able to respond to questions that others might have about our faith.  However, whenever we are firmly grounded in our own personal relationship with Jesus and our love for our Catholic faith, especially the Mass, how can we not want to invite others to that same experience?

For some people who are not Catholic, inviting them to Mass might not be our first step, as they could feel overwhelmed.  For those individuals, perhaps the invitation is simply an offer to pray with them.  As you read that, perhaps that gives you anxiety!  If we personally know Jesus and are comfortable talking to Him in prayer, what is so hard about inviting another person into that?  Again, if it feels awkward to do that, perhaps that is an indication of our need for deepening our relationship with Jesus, so that we can be more willing to invite others to experience Him as well.

If the person we are thinking of inviting deeper is a Catholic, but one who has been away from the practice of the faith, perhaps our invitation is not first to come back to Mass, but first to go to confession.  To make the invitation more acceptable, we can offer to go with them and also go to confession.  Again, that might cause us anxiety, as perhaps it has been some time since we last went to confession.  But just know that the Lord desires to free us from our fears, and more importantly, to free us from our sins, so that experiencing His love and mercy for us, we will be the more willingly to invite others to that same encounter.

Of course, we can and should invite others to join us for Mass, and as with confession, offering to go with them to Mass so that they do not feel isolated, as though they do not belong.  To be with that person, to pray with them, to pray for them before the Lord can be a powerful form of hospitality.

Pray to the Lord this week, asking Him if there might be somebody He is asking you to invite to encounter Jesus more deeply.  Pray for that person by name for several days, then, with faith, offer whatever invitation is most appropriate for where they are in their journey of faith.

Father Alford     

Feast Day: September 29^th 

This week we celebrate the three archangels named in scripture: Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael and I’d like to take the opportunity to do a bit more of a theological dive with you into the ministry of the angels rather than just a relating of their story. In our profession of faith, we state that “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” Notice that before we even get to Jesus, His resurrection, the Holy Spirit, the Church, our own resurrection … we already have stated that we believe in “all things visible and invisible.” That’s where the angels fit in! Though we do not often see the invisible, we believe in it! And in a world where we spend an awful lot of time just with “the visible”, it’s important to reaffirm our choosing to accept God’s revealing to us that there is an entire invisible world which we are also part of.

That said, to discover more about the archangels, we can simply turn to the prayers for the Mass on their feast-day. The priest, having received the offerings of the people and brought them to the altar, but before beginning the preface and the Eucharistic prayer, prays these words:

We offer you a sacrifice of praise, O Lord, humbly entreating, that, as these gifts are borne by the ministry of Angels into the presence of your majesty, so you may receive them favorably and make them profitable for our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.

If the words ring a bell, it may be because they echo a similar prayer said during the First Eucharistic Prayer, after the consecration:

In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God: command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty, so that all of us, who through this participation at the altar receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.

During that prayer the priest bows down at the altar, folding his hands because he is not so much leading this prayer as inviting the angels to join our offering, and carry it, and us, into the heavenly liturgy. This part of the Mass, and part of our faith, is worth reflecting on. The Mass is the re-presentation of Christ’s Sacrifice on calvary for our redemption, as well as an encounter with His Body, risen and glorified, which nourishes, sustains, sanctifies, and continues to transform us after His likeness. The Eucharistic sacrifice is for our redemption, our transformation into saints, and our worship of God. Where do the angels fit in? 

We’re confronted by an amazing fact here: that though the angels are “purely spiritual creatures” with “intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 330, emphasis in original), despite their surpassing us in so many ways, they have allowed themselves to be humbly concerned with our salvation. If you recall your Baltimore Catechism, remember what it says about the three Archangels: “The Archangel Michael drove Satan out of heaven; the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin that she was to become the Mother of God. The Archangel Raphael guided and protected Tobias.” (Baltimore Catechism, Question 221) These are the glorious archangels, but they have lowered themselves to helping us out!

Aquinas gives us a deeper insight into this, describing the difference in how the angels and demons (fallen angels) relate to us: “Man can of his own accord fall into sin: but he cannot advance in merit without the Divine assistance, which is borne to man by the ministry of the angels. For this reason the angels take part in all our good works: whereas all our sins are not due to the demons’ instigation.”(Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologicae, Part I, Question 114, Article 3, Reply to Objection 3) All our good works – our prayers, our sacrifices, our acts of charity, our growth in virtue – is linked to the life and work and worship of the angels! This means not only that our lives are intrinsically intertwined with the spiritual (this should not surprise us: we are body and spirit!), but also that there is a personal, relational, reality to this. We are not on our own trying to deepen our spiritual life, grow in virtue, avoid sin, or come to know God … we are befriended and attended to by the angels in that walk with the Lord!

– Fr. Dominic has often turned to Our Lord, and the saints, for inspiration and help in the journey of discipleship, but there is something uniquely comforting to know that the angels too – these tremendously powerful spiritual creatures – are also on our side, walking with us, helping us in big ways and small. This week I am going to try and remember this fact a lot more! When I’m working, or running, or shopping, or forgiving, or praying, or falling asleep … all of these occasions will be better if I recall that the angels are there with me!

After laying out the mission statement, the Fourth Diocesan Synod offers four pillars as a way to focus on how to give flesh to this mission.  Here is what the next declaration reads:

To further this mission, the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois is committed

to implementing the Four Pillars of Discipleship and Stewardship, namely:

1. Hospitality – to invite people proactively to join us in prayer, especially Sunday Mass;
2. Prayer – to provide well-prepared celebrations of the sacraments and other occasions for prayer as signs of hope and paths of grace to Heaven;
3. Formation – to study the Bible and learn more about Jesus and our Catholic faith; and
4. Service – to serve each other, especially those in need, by practicing charity and justice.  (Synod Declaration 1b)

When I presented this declaration to our parish Pastoral Council a few months ago, we reflected briefly on how each of these pillars are being lived out here at the Cathedral.  For each of them, we were able to point to efforts that are already in place, but we also acknowledged that there is certainly room to grow in each of these areas.

In the next few articles, we will be looking at each of these pillars, reflecting on how they are essential expressions of what it means to be a parish community of disciples.  I will also point out some of the ways that we see these pillars at work here in our parish.  Then I will invite us to pray and think about how the Lord is inviting us to go deeper with each of these pillars.

As we begin these reflections, I am seeing the Providence of God working in the timing of this topic!  As you will see later in the bulletin, we are looking to hire a new member of our parish staff.  In the past year, we have experienced some major changes with the sudden passing of our former Business Manager, Bill Vogt.  Our bookkeeper, Jan Sgambelluri, retired and moved away from Springfield.  Her replacement, Steven Kehoe, left last month for the seminary.  We have been getting by, thanks in large part to the great work of our Parish Secretary, Kim Gunter, who has picked up several things.  However, we are all doing more than we can probably handle, limiting our availability to do the things that would be most beneficial to our roles and the flourishing of our parish.  Therefore, we are looking to hire a new Business Manager.  I have it in my mind that an ideal candidate would be an intentional disciple who reflects these four pillars in how they live.  In a parish that is dedicated to helping our parishioners to grow as missionary disciples, those who work for the parish really need to have that same passion.  Technical skills are great, but far more valuable is one who brings with them a love of Christ and His Church, and a hunger to share the Good News of the Gospel through their support of the mission of the parish, hidden though it may be at times.

Since so many of you have been so good at praying those three Hail Mary’s each day for the parish, I would ask that as you offer the first one, which is for the parish in general, that you specifically ask that the Lord would help identify the person He most desires to fill this position of Business Manager.  

Father Alford     

Feast Day: September 22^nd

It was 57 years until the birth of Christ when Julius Caesar sent his best commander, Servius Galba, to seize the St. Bernard Pass from the Gauls (of course, he had a different name for it, the “Poeninus” Pass, a name possibly derived from the erroneous assumption Hannibal had used this pass to invade Italy during the Punic wars. Livy, an ancient historian, instead thinks this name derived from a local god worshiped by the Gallic tribes who lived there.) In any case, this was one of the few ancient routes between (what is now) Italy, France, and Switzerland, and it remained one of the few passes through those mountains until a tunnel was bored in 1964! Napoleon – 18 centuries after Augustus successfully took the pass and established a garrison and temple to Jupiter on the heights – would use this same route to send 40,000 troops against the Austrians in 1800.

Our story happens during the reign of Maximiam, co-emperor with the infamous Diocletian, who two centuries after Julius and Augustus called up a Legion from Thebes, in Egypt, to assist him in putting down a rebellion in Burgandy. These crack troops endured the march to the top of the pass, 8000 feet above sea level, and then stopped. St. Eucherius, a successor of the famous St. Ireneaus, as Bishop of Lyon, sets the scene for us about a century and a half after the fact:

Acaunus is almost 60 miles from the city of Geneva, and is 14 miles distant from Lake Lemannus into which the Rhone flows. The place itself is situated in a valley among the Alpine peaks and those travelling there find the path narrow and dangerous and the crossing difficult; for the hostile Rhone has left in the foothills of the rocky mountain a ridge which travellers can barely pass. When the narrows of the passes have been conquered and left behind, a not inconsiderable plain is suddenly revealed among the mountain cliffs. It was in this place that the holy legion had halted.

The Theban Legionnaires were Christians, and they would not offer sacrifice in honor of Maximiam, nor attack their fellow Christians in Gaul. Bp. Eucherius had himself braved the pass, seen the jagged peaks, the ruins of pagan temples, the Roman road and milemarker XXIII to visit the shrine built by the local Bishop Theodore to the martyrs of the Theban Legion. 

You see, the Christians of Thebes knew what it was to be persecuted for their faith. Their hometown was where the sensual god, Dionysus was born, as well as the demigod, Hercules, and the location of the legendary tale of Oedipus. Many of these men had endured previous persecutions, as had their fathers over the previous century. They would not worship the emperor, and they would not kill their fellow Christians. Maximian, Eucherius reports, commanded the legion to be decimated, one out of ten of the men executed for their disobedience, but they still would not budge. Eucherius imagines the response that these heroic soldiers, led by their commander, St. Maurice, sent back to Maximian:

… they sent to Maximianus as he still burned with madness a message as brave as it was pious, which is said to have run in the following vein: “We are your soldiers, O emperor, but God’s servants, nevertheless, a fact that we freely confess. We owe military service to you, but just living to Him; from you we have received the pay for our toil, but from Him we have received the origin of life. No way can we follow an emperor in this, a command for us to deny God our Father, especially since our Father is your God and Father, whether you like it or not. Unless we are being forced on a path so destructive that we give offence in this manner, we will still obey you as we have done hitherto; otherwise, we will obey Him rather than you. We offer our hands, which we think wrong to sully with the blood of innocents, against any enemy. Those right hands know how to fight against wicked enemies, not how to torture pious citizens. We remember to take arms for citizens rather than against citizens. We have always fought for justice, piety, and the welfare of the innocent. These have been the prices of our dangers hitherto. We have fought for faith; what faith will we keep with you at all, if we do not exhibit faith to our God?”

Maximian’s anger burned hotter and he ordered the execution of the entire cohort, sending other Roman armies to do the task. The Theban Christians laid down their swords and died by the hundreds. We still know dozens of their names – Alexander. Alverius. Candidus. Chiaffredo, Constantius… “Acts”, reports of their martyrdom, slowly trickled out to other Roman outposts by survivors. (It seems likely it was not the entire Legion that had refused the command, perhaps it was one cohort, one tenth of a legion, that had been detached, sent ahead, refused Maximian’s command, and were the ones executed. This also makes sense of Eucherius’ reference to the Legion being “decimated”, because that punishment had not been used for centuries, though if in fact one cohort was executed, that would be one-tenth of the entire Theban Legion.)

– Fr. Dominic holds in mind not only St. Eucherius’ thrilling record, nor just the image of all these men’s bones, but one other image: Nowadays, as this ancient road crests the mountains between Italy and Switzerland, between the fallen temples of Jupiter, and Mercury, and older gods … a cross now stands. On that cross is inscribed three simple words: “Deo Optimo Maximo”, “to the Best and Greatest God.” So lived the Theban Legion, so must we.

Having reflected on the various elements of the first sentence of our diocesan and parish mission statement, the following sentence is added to sum up the mission:

Accordingly, the community of Catholic faithful in this Diocese is committed to the discipleship and stewardship way of life as commanded by Christ Our Savior and as revealed by Sacred Scripture and Tradition.

What catches my attention in this sentence is the use of the phrase “way of life.”  Discipleship and stewardship is not meant to be a program or an initiative with a beginning and an ending.  Rather, it is intended to be a way of life that guides us in all of our thoughts, words, and actions.  Being a disciple and a steward is not something just for Mass on Sunday, but our entire lives are meant to be ordered to following Jesus and living according to His teachings, those revealed in both Sacred Scripture and Tradition.

It is important to come back to a fundamental point as it relates to our Catholic faith, namely that being a disciple is not first and foremost about observing rules.  Rather, Christianity is about being in relationship with a person, Jesus Christ.  We can see this in the account of the call of the Twelve as recounted in the Gospel of Mark:

He went up the mountain and summoned those whom He wanted and they came to Him. He appointed twelve [whom He also named apostles] that they might be with Him and He might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. (Mk 3:13-15)

Before sending them out, Jesus called the Apostles to “be with Him.”  This indicates the desire that Jesus has to first be a friend with us by our spending time with Him, especially in prayer, worship, and learning about Him.  From that closeness with Him, we come to know Him and love Him, as we discover just how much He loves us.  Then, from that place of friendship and awareness of that depth of His love, we willingly and joyfully go out, letting our lives be lived in union with Him and according to His will in everything.

There is a quote that I often think about when considering the call to make following Jesus more than just an occasional activity, but truly a way of life.  It is often attributed to the former Superior General of the Jesuits, Fathe Pedro Arrupe, SJ.  Perhaps I have used this quote before, but it is worth sharing again, as it speaks so beautifully about the call to make discipleship and stewardship a way of life:

Nothing is more practical than finding God, 
than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, 
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

Father Alford