Feast Day: June 21^st | Patron Saint of Youth, Students, AIDS Patients and Caregivers, the Blind, and all those suffering from epidemics.

If you take a look at the list above of those that St. Aloysius is a particular patron of, you would already have in mind many of the things and people that he loved. As for those in their first decades of life, and in particular students, Aloysius (Luigi) was an intelligent, energetic, and blessed young man. At the age of 12, he had a life-changing encounter with God and the saints, and from then on desired to give his enthusiasm and talents to the service of God. Added to these positive experiences of his youth were the difficult ones, in particular the violent deaths of two of his brothers, murdered by the sometimes brutal era that was 16^th century Italy. All of these brought Aloysius to a fervent desire to join the Jesuits and give up everything for the sake of Christ. After long conversations with his parents – who, wanting what was best for him, strongly urged him to choose some occupation that would allow him a certain amount of worldly comfort and at least the ability to receive the inheritance they had worked many years to provide for him – he convinced them that it was for his good, and the world’s, that he join the Society of Jesus, and he entered that order as a novice at the age of 17. 

From there, his patronage for the ill and suffering began to come to the forefront. He suffered from various ailments of his own, including kidney disease, insomnia, various skin conditions, and headaches, and these became the impetus in his heart to give his time and love to those afflicted by disease and the rigors of age and the burdens of a hard life. His charity grew enormously during these months, to the point that when the plague broke out in Rome in 1591, he thought nothing of offering his young life in service to those suffering from the disease. He had already had a premonition of his immanent death after an encounter with the Archangel Gabriel, but each day he persevered in asking his superiors to give him permission to care for the ill, risking his own frail health to offer love and dignity to those who were hospitalized. Sure enough, he came down with the dreaded disease. He received the Sacrament of Anointing and rallied for a short while, but again succumbed to the plague, and received his final sacraments on the octave day of Corpus Christi.

He had received his first Communion from St. Charles Borromeo and his last sacraments from St. Robert Bellarmine. And this is the final love that I would like to emphasize throughout St. Aloysius’s short life: in the statue we have of him in our cathedral (up the ramp on the right side of the sanctuary), he wears the cassock of a Jesuit, a surplice to serve at Mass, and holds a crucifix. St. Aloysius loved the youth, and he loved the sick, but above all he simply loved Jesus. As we celebrate Corpus Christ this weekend, even more than all our other loves, we should ask this saint’s intercession so that our love for Jesus would increase! Aloysius, in his final minutes, wracked by the the plague, simply repeated the name of Jesus. Would I do the same? If I don’t repeat frequently, with love and devotion, Jesus’ name now, will I suddenly start when eternity looms?

– Fr. Dominic Rankin did not receive his first Holy Communion from a cardinal, nor (yet) someone who has been canonized a saint. But my priest growing up was a lovely, humble, saintly priest named Fr. John Carberry, and nicknamed the “White Tornado”. I do hope to emulate just a little of his energy, but even more of His tender and simple devotion to Jesus and Mary. 

There seems to be a common view among preachers that preaching on Trinity Sunday is one of the more daunting liturgies on which to preach.  The Trinity is not the easiest concept to understand, and I think because of how sublime this mystery is, we can be hesitant to speak about it, fearing we might say something wrong, something that might not fully grasp this great mystery of who God is – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the almighty Three in One.

Personally, I have not struggled too much with preaching on this topic and I think a reason for this is my focusing on one important aspect of the Trinity that is foundational – relationship.  At its heart, the Trinity is about that perfect relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, the love that keeps them together in perfect unity.  But this relationship is not something God desires to keep just to Himself.  He desires to share that love with something outside of Himself, namely us who are made in His image and likeness.  The very first paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses this beautifully:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.

(CCC 1)

Our life as Christians, more than anything else, is to seek to be in relationship with Him and to always live out of that relationship, rooted in His love for us and generously sharing that love in imitation of the one in whose image and likeness we have been made.  Furthermore, the Trinity is a pattern for what all of our relationships should look like, united with one another in the love of God.  To be sure, we will never fully realize either one of these relationships (with God or with others) fully in this life, but that does not mean that we should not seek to grow toward that ideal.

With that in mind, I invite us to turn to one of the prayers we learned when we were children as a way of increasing our desire and asking for the grace to grow in these relationships – with God and with others.  It’s the Glory Be.  When we pray this prayer, we do a few things.  First of all, we give praise and glory to who God is – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect charity.  We then praise Him for the act of sheer goodness in creating us so that we too can share in His blessed life.  I like to see this prayer also as a way of asking the Lord to strengthen our relationship with Him and, at the same time, to strengthen our relationships with others.  Understood in this way, this simple prayer can express so much about our belief in the Trinity and what that belief calls us to as His sons and daughters, brothers and sisters to one another.  I therefore highly encourage you to renew your appreciation for the Glory By prayer, and to pray it in a special way today with these thoughts in mind.  Then, moving forward, may every time you pray it be and act of praise for this central mystery of our faith and a desire to live that mystery more fully in your lives. 

Father Alford

This Trinity Sunday, we commemorate in a particular way the mysterious relationship that exists among the three persons of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This relationship’s love is that same love whose very essence could not but diffuse itself in the supernatural act of creation. The love that binds the three persons of the Holy Trinity is such a compassionate love whose very nature warrants a creation of beings in whose existence the essence of which (the creator) is extended. And to express the eternal togetherness of the persons in the trinity, they are present to each other wholly in their respective roles in the history of salvation.

For example, in Genesis 1:26, God the Father said to both the Son and the Spirit, let us make man in our image and likeness. In Matthew 28:19, God the Son sent his disciples to go forth into the whole world and baptize everyone in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These and many similar verses across the scripture reveal how the three persons of the Holy Trinity love themselves so much that in all their activities from the creation, redemption, and sanctification of all that exists, they work together. The love that binds them into one indivisible being is the same love that incarnated itself by taking flesh to become man so that humanity may, in turn, allow that love to bind them together in Christ the incarnate love.

In the first reading today, Jesus, who is the father’s wisdom, explained that he was not only present throughout the work of creation. But that he also found delight in the human race – the crown of creation. Jesus’s delight in humanity does not necessarily concern the beauty of creation that humanity pinnacles. However, it is mainly about the graciousness of his father, whose goodness diffuses itself, and the result is creation.

Surprisingly, this love binds the three persons of the trinity; this love that diffused itself and resulted in creation; this same love condescended to fleshy existence, suffered, and died to redeem humanity. It is the same love that has been abused, bruised, scorned, and rejected by many.

Last week here in Nigeria, a group of Fulani Islamic terrorists entered a Catholic Church during Mass on the feast of Pentecost and massacred more than seventy people. The love that brought these innocent faithful to the Church on this fateful day is the same love that binds the three persons of the Holy Trinity whom we celebrate today. And it was this same love that was abused, bruised, scorned, and rejected in the butchering of these poor souls.

These Fulani Islamic terrorists committed these mass murders and continue to do so almost daily in many parts of Nigeria. This has been going on for well over ten years. We continue to pray and ask God for a lasting solution to the killings of Christians in Nigeria. We may also take this opportunity to reflect on our personal lives and see how we participate in abusing, bruising, scorning, and rejecting the love that we celebrate today. That love that binds the persons of the trinity is the same love infused into us in baptism to make us one in Christ.

Surprisingly, one of the recurring challenges I have encountered as a priest is people asking me questions about my homilies. As funny as it may sound, it is true. But I truly enjoy those questions and anticipate them because they are signs that people listen to my homilies and understand them. This is despite the difficulties that are sometimes imposed by the echo in the sound system of our cathedral church. As if that is not enough, my accent, which is different from that of most of our parishioners, sometimes increases the difficulties people experience in understanding the words I speak from the pulpit.

So, when I receive questions to discuss what I preach about, I feel both excited and a bit anxious. This anxiety is because I hardly write down my homilies. Therefore, it is not always easy to remember them distinctly enough to discuss them. But this is except for those subjects that either tickled my fancy or made strong impressions on me. One of such subjects is HAPPINESS.

A few months ago, I was at the YMCA here in town one afternoon for my routine exercise when I met one of our Sacred Heart-Griffin High School students. Talking briefly with him, he asked me about one of my recent homilies in school that discussed HAPPINESS. I was not nervous to talk about the topic with him because it is one of those things, I am willing to preach on or talk about as often as I have the opportunity.

One may wonder why happiness. Even before Christ would take flesh and be born in the likeness of men, one of the greatest intellectuals that ever lived, Aristotle, posited that happiness is the central purpose of human life. This happiness, he explained, constitutes making good choices and living a life of virtue, which saves us from the shackles of bitterness and sadness.

Ultimately, in the sacred scriptures, Saint Peter, the pre-eminent apostle and first leader of the Church, in his first apostolic letter, instructs us to always embrace happiness even in the most troubling times of our lives (1Peter 4:13). A joyful disposition, when it is genuine, is both a foreshadowing of and a preparation for the boundless happiness that we will experience when we see Christ as He is. That is when his glory is finally revealed to us.

In our today’s society, it is no longer news that too many people are sad, bitter, and sometimes miserable. While there are many reasons to be unhappy in our world today, the gospel message encourages us to radiate the love of Christ both in our words and actions. This means being as positive as possible with a cheerful disposition that allows people to encounter Christ when they meet us. Another great advantage of a joyful spirit in today’s world is that it helps people who may be going through some difficult times to cheer up when they see us. This is because happiness can be infectious when genuine.

Feast Day: June 1^st  

Just a bit more than a century after Jesus ascended to His Father, a philosopher in Rome, who had found annoying and empty all the philosophies of his day, and been converted by an extraordinary conversation on the beach with an old man who introduced him to Jesus’ fulfillment of the prophets, wrote an extraordinary letter to the Emperor.  Antonius Pius had been ruling the Roman Empire since 138, so he was now into his second decade of his reign.  The empire was at peace.  Antoninus never led armies into battle, in fact, he probably never went within 500 miles of a Roman Legion, who were adroitly quelling various problems on the outskirts of the empire.  He governed well, expanded Rome’s infrastructure including its marvelous aqueducts bringing free and clean water to all, built temples and promoted the arts and philosophy. He was an ideal emperor to receive Justin’s letter:

To the Emperor Titus Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Cæesar… and to the sacred senate, with the whole people of the Romans, I, Justin… present this address and petition in behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them. Reason directs those who are truly pious and philosophical to honour and love only what is true, declining to follow traditional opinions, if these be worthless. For not only does sound reason direct us to refuse the guidance of those who did or taught anything wrong, but it is incumbent on the lover of truth, by all means, and if death be threatened, even before his own life, to choose to do and say what is right. Do you, then, since ye are called pious and philosophers, guardians of justice and lovers of learning, give good heed, and hearken to my address; and if ye are indeed such, it will be manifested. …

He spends many pages outlining for the emperor the truths that Christians believe, explaining how it is a reasonable religion and should be at least tolerated alongside of all the other religions then swirling around the Roman Empire.  But his purpose is not just to clarify, but also to evangelize, he spends many chapters explaining Jesus as the Logos-Incarnate, God-made-man, and then gives the emperor an account of the Church’s practices. It is to these words that I want to turn:

But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented to our teaching, bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized [illuminated] person, and for all others in every place, that we may be counted worthy, now that we have learned the truth, by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of the brethrenbread and a cup of wine mixed with water; and he praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands. And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen. This word Amen answers in the Hebrew language to γένοιτο [so be it]. And when the president has given thanks, and all the people have expressed their assent, those who are called by us deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion.  

Notice that already, just a few decades after the death of the Apostles, and over a century beforethe great waves of persecution that would seek to destroy the Church under Diocletian, we already have a foundational belief in the Divinity of Christ, a recognition that if Christianity is true, every other philosophy and religion is at best incomplete.  We already see the Church having bishops, priests, and deacons, and emphasis that divine life is given in Baptism and that the Eucharist is really, truly, Jesus’ Body and Blood, and we can only receive it if we have received from God faith and forgiveness and continue to live in His truth.  I stop here for this week.  We will return to Justin’s letter next week to see what he knows to be the life that Christians are called to from all of these truths.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin while studying in Rome, went with other priests and seminarians from Illinois for lunch to a restaurant in a town outside of Rome. There were rumors that St. Justin was buried in the Church there, but we were saddened to find the Church was not open Sunday afternoon.  Turns out, his remains are not in Italy, at least not all of them.  After he was beheaded, Justin’s relics were treasured by the Church and reverenced in various Churches in Italy all the way until the 1800s, during which, at a time of upheaval in Italy, they were given to a priest of Baltimore, Maryland.  There they stayed until rediscovered in 1989, at which point the Church of St. Mary’s in Annapolis, MD, gave them a proper burial.