When he was installed as our bishop in 2010, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki chose the date of his installation for June 22, the liturgical feast of Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More.  These two saints serve as special patrons for our bishop who is both a bishop (like St. John Fisher) and a lawyer (like St. Thomas More, patron saint of lawyers).  Bishop Paprocki has shared on several occasions that his favorite movie is A Man for All Seasons, a story about the life of St. Thomas More who suffered martyrdom for his obedience to Christ and His Church in the face of pressure from the King.  There is a line from the movie that always strikes me where St. Thomas More says the following before his execution: “I die his Majesty’s good servant, but God’s first.”  

These words serve as a great motto for us to live by in our lives as Catholics.  We should strive to be good citizens of the country in which we live, not intentionally trying to rebel against our leaders.  At the same time, we have an even greater obligation to be faithful servants to the one who exercises the greatest authority over us, Christ our King.  Ideally, the laws of our nation and world should be in accord with God’s divine law, but we know that this is often not the case, thus our need to advocate for changing laws and practices that lead society away from God’s law so that our world can experience the truth and freedom that His law brings.

As the Church celebrates this last Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Christ the King, it is fitting that our Family of Faith topic for this month is freedom.  As mentioned above, when we submit ourselves to God’s will and His law, we are set on a path to true freedom.  In a culture that often confuses freedom with doing what one wants, the Church proposes to us a definition of freedom as doing what one ought.  Staying obedient to the laws of Christ and His Church guarantees protection from the enemies that try to assail us in various ways.  Christ our King reigns victorious and He desires for us to share in that victory.  In a world that questions and doubts those in authority, we should have no fear in trusting in the authority and rule of Christ our King, for His is a kingship of service and love toward His beloved children.  By following His will for us, we become more fully who He intends us to be and will experience a peace and joy that this world cannot give, perhaps not in this life, but certainly in the life to come.

During this week, as we look to Christ our King and consider His rule over us, it might be good for us to spend some time praying with Psalm 119.  Every verse in this long psalm refers to the law in some fashion.  The psalmist extols the goodness of the commandments of God, rejoicing as he strives to obey His word.  May our hearts have a similar longing to follow the path of the Lord, that we might be able to say at the end of our lives like St. Thomas More: “I die my country’s faithful citizen, but God’s first!”

Father Alford     

As Thanksgiving draws near, many people ask me if we celebrate Thanksgiving in Nigeria and how? It is a natural curiosity for people to ask questions like this to those they know come from cultures and places other than the United States. Sometimes, I am inclined to say no, we do not celebrate Thanksgiving in Nigeria. But that answer will either be incomplete or wrong. While Thanksgiving is an American thing, for the most part, many other cultures and nations have celebrations at various times of the year that are very similar to the American fiesta of Thanksgiving.

In the Igbo nation of Nigeria, the former Republic of Biafra, the “New Yam Festival” known as the “Iri Ji or Iwa Ji” in the Igbo language is very similar to the American Thanksgiving. The Iri Ji is a thanksgiving festival to God for a good harvest at the beginning of the harvesting period. It takes place for about three days in different towns and kingdoms across the Igbo nation anytime between July and September. Since July through September is a long vacation (summer vacation) in Nigeria, schools are not in session. But because the Iri Ji is a town and kingdom-based celebration, it is not a work-free day for workers except, in some cases, for farmers.

The American Thanksgiving and the Igbo Iri Ji are very similar both in cultural origins and essence. American Thanksgiving is farmers-based in origin. It lasted for three days in the early stages of the holiday. In the same way, the Igbo Iri Ji was farmers-based and somehow still is. And it typically lasts for three days. Both fiestas focused primarily on thanking God for his blessings upon humanity. In his words, President Abraham Lincoln explained in the document that made the American Thanksgiving a national holiday that Thanksgiving is a time to render “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” 

So, yes. We celebrate thanksgiving in Nigeria – in the Igbo nation of Nigeria where I grew up. It is not as popular as American thanksgiving because it is not a national holiday like American Thanksgiving. Also, the Iri Ji is not celebrated at the same time across Igboland as the American Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the same day across the United States. Therefore, various cultures and nations around the world may have other names for their thanksgiving. But they indeed have celebrations like the American thanksgiving where the people give thanks to God for all the blessings of life.

It will be good to remind ourselves that this thanksgiving, we should be giving thanks to God for the many blessings he has given us in this life. The life we live, the friends and family we have, our Catholic faith, education, jobs, and businesses, and the many things we have and enjoy in our world today. All these are reasons to be grateful to our family and friends and especially to God. To express our gratitude, let us choose to stay away from our sinful and bad habits, forgive people who have wronged us, ask for forgiveness from people we wronged. Let us pursue peace and justice in our thoughts and actions. And finally, let us reach out to people and extend some goodwill, kindness, love, and compassion. May you and yours have a memorable thanksgiving this week. Amen.

Feast Day: November 23^rd

“Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damien…”  This week, on the 23^rd we celebrate the Clement of this list, and the following day, on November 24^th, we get to honor Chrysogonus.  These early saints have been listed in our Roman Canon (Eucharist Prayer I) for most of the Church’s history, probably some 1500 or 1600 years!  Not to leave Chrysogonus, the 4^th century Roman martyr out – perhaps we’ll come back to his story another time – but this week we turn the clock even further back to make the friendship of Clement.  He is the earliestof the Apostolic Fathers – the bishop-teachers who were the first after the apostles to annunciate and explain the faith.  He, the Bishop of Rome, from 88 to 99 AD, knew St. Peter personally and was the fourth bishop of the eternal city (after the aforementioned Linus and Cletus), (according to another Apostolic Father, St. Irenaeus, who we met already back in June, and who several decades after Clement, emphasized the importance of those earliest, and preeminent bishops and martyrs.)

As with so many early saints, we don’t have much more than an outline of his personal story, yet we have the entirety of a letter that Clement wrote to the church at Corinth, correcting and teaching and encouraging, as does our Holy Father down to our own day in what we now call encyclicals.  So, we have here a beautiful example of the Pope’s munera (purpose/office/charism) already cherished in the first days of the Church!  Throughout this long letter we have references to Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, as well as Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Titus, 1 Timothy, and Hebrews and Acts, besides references to Christ known in the Gospels.  We have most of the New Testament here referenced before the turn of the first Christian century!

But I turn to Clement today not so much for his theology, or ecclesiology, or where he fits into Christian history, but to continue our discussion of anthropology.  What has the vocation sought, and found, by St. Frances Xavier Cabrini have to do with the musings of St. Albert the Great on our soul and body, and what do either of them have to do with this 4^th pope and his words to the Church of Corinth?  All of them fit together around this great question: “what is man that You [God] are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?  You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor…” [Psalm 8:4-5]  God calls us, God cares for us, God created us … with glory, and beauty, and intelligence, and creativity, and freedom.  This is the mystery we discover in ourselves.  It is this reality that we see as we walk through the twists and turns of life as God’s turns us into saints.  And it is this glorious creation and care that is visible in nature, and imprinted upon our nature.  

And, this month as we wrestle with these questions of freedom and dignity and conscience and call, that whole question is already summed up two-thirds of the way through Clement’s words to the Corinthians: “Let every one of you, brethren, give thanks to God in his own order, living in all good conscience, with becoming gravity, and not going beyond the rule of the ministry prescribed to him.” [Pope Clement I, Letter to Corinthians, #41]  He gives the example of the Jewish sacrifices, how they are offered only in Jerusalem, and the different sacrifices are offered by the various ranks of priests.  Of course, this fits well with the rest of the letter where, amongst other things, he speaks at length on the structure of the Church, and who has the authority/responsibility at each level to pass on the Gospel (including his own authority, over the entire Church, including Corinth), but he also speaks specifically to each of us as well. If you were puzzled by the meanderings of Frances’ discernment or the cerebral musings of Albert, let this line from Clement clarify things: 

1. God created us with freedom – the ability to choose (a gift that we should use to choose what is truly good).  When you feel the weight of that gift, consider how happy God is when you use it well!
2. Each of us, the Lord entrusts, with a realm of responsibility – above all else, this is the souls we are meant to direct towards heaven (our own firstly, then those within our vocation, then our friends and coworkers).  Don’t be overly concerned with all the problems out there; stick with those God has given you!  
3. And, He has placed within our heart a conscience – formed by the Revelation found in Scripture and proclaimed by the Church (which should direct our actions).  Focus on forming it properly, and following it faithfully, and God will lead you on the path He desires!

– Fr. Rankin would struggle to name his favorite Church in Rome, or the most beautiful, or the most important … but the Church of San Clemente (where this venerable Pope is now buried, and which bears his name) does fit one superlative: most psychotic.  The “modern” basilica, built in the 1100s, sits on top of a 4^th century basilica, which sits on top of a temple to Mithra, which sits on top of a prior Christian house-church, which was built over the top of a Roman mint, which was itself built on top of some other building which burned down in the fire of 60 AD…  If you visit it, you can see all those different personalities for yourself, just go down the stairs.

As you may be aware, the Cathedral hosted some of the relics of St. Padre Pio this past weekend.  It was a blessing to see so many people come from near and far to venerate the relics of this relatively new saint in the life of the Church (less than 20 years canonized is pretty recent for the Church!).  I spoke with one man this past weekend who was excited that we were hosting the relics, as he told me that he had the opportunity to attend a Mass celebrated by the saint in 1965.  What an amazing experience that must have been!

Whenever the relics of a saint are made available for veneration, people come with various prayer requests for themselves and for others.  One often wonders if any miracles came from such times of veneration.  As of this writing, I have not been made aware of any miracles that took place this weekend, though there was something pretty remarkable that I myself recognized.  We seemed to have a larger than normal number of people coming to confession, something I believe was aided by the intercession of our guest for the weekend, St. Padre Pio.  It makes good sense to draw this conclusion as this was very dedicated to this great sacrament of mercy.  He would often spend long hours in the confessional with penitents coming to him from all parts of the world.  One estimate that I read suggested that he may have heard as many as five million confessions in his many years as a priest!  That is simply amazing!  As I head from the sacristy to the confessional, I often invoke his intercession to assist me in being a faithful instrument of God’s mercy.

What strikes me over and over again as I hear confessions is the freedom that this sacrament brings to penitents.  People sometimes see going to confession as a place of admitting defeat, which is true to some extent, but even more, it is a place where Christ claims His victory in our souls again by granting us that gift of freedom from sin so that we can truly be who He desires us to be.   Sin makes us become less than we are created to be, and being freed from those sins restores us to the place of our baptism when we were made His adopted sons and daughters.

During this month of November, let us also be reminded of the role that we play in helping others to attain complete freedom from the effects of sin through our prayers for the dead.  Those who die in friendship with God, but who still carry the effects of sin on their souls go to Purgatory to have those effects purified before being admitted to Heaven.  They are in need of our prayers to assist them in receiving this gift of ultimate freedom, so let us be generous in our prayers for the dead, especially by making  visits to cemeteries and praying for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.  Doing so is a good investment for our future, for the aid which we offer to these souls now will not be forgotten when they arrive in Heaven.  They will most gladly pray on our behalf to help us in our struggle to claim the reward of the freedom of the children of God that awaits us in Heaven.

Father Alford     

One of the most beautiful and, at the same time, frustrating things about our lives here on earth is that no one knows when it will end. This is true except for those who decide to take it by themselves for themselves or others. It is beautiful because then one does not have to spend it worrying about it or attempting to run away from it or postpone it. It can also be frustrating for some people who wish to have all the world’s sinful pleasures and repent at the last minute.

The natural end of our lives here on earth is beyond our human knowledge. Jesus Christ makes this fact clearer in today’s Gospel. At the end of the passage, He says: “but of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” This is a biblical truth and an indisputable part of our human experience. So the question, probably, should not be about when or how our lives will end but what shall we leave behind? What memories shall be our legacies for our family and loved ones?

Usually, the most pleasant and unforgettable memories we leave behind are with the people we spend the most time with. Mostly our family and loved ones. The memories we leave are our legacies. Sometimes, they are tangible, material things. Other times, they are actions, words, expressions, and smiles that impact others positively. These memories keep us fresh and green in the lives and minds of our loved ones after we LEAVE.

In one of his greatest hits, “I dreamed about mama last night,” the legendary country musician, Hank Williams, narrated some of his finest memories of his late mother. This song may not be one of those making country music the best music genre of all time. But it is one of my best for Hank William’s records. In this song, Hank captured his mother’s impenetrable love for her children and the memories that kept her present in their lives even long after she LEFT.

Hank narrated how his mother never went to bed at night until her children were back home safe, clean, and fed. It is clear from the song that his mother was intentionally present in her children’s lives. She loved and embraced her motherhood vocation – a vocation that our Blessed Mother Mary embraced and lived to the fullest, thereby leaving every mother an example to follow.

Hank William’s dreams of his mother were memories that challenged and encouraged him to live a life of purpose. In the same way, we all should strive to live a life of purpose. Living a life that touches, inspires, uplifts, and encourages others even in the tiniest ways is a life of purpose. Such a life keeps one from concerns about the day or the hour.

Feast Day: November 15^th 

The venerable philosopher was perplexed.  As a certain fall afternoon in the late 1240s slipped by, the desk room littered with scrolls of all kinds was a good image of his cluttered mind.  The great mind had tackled scientific inquiries into genetics and astronomy and chemistry … last month his project was calculating the size and speed of the heavenly spheres, though today his astrolabe was gathering dust rather than measuring the angles of rays of light.

More recently, he had been captivated by the question of whether Plato or Aristotle had come up with a better concept of universals.  He had grinned as that philosophical jargon had spiraled around in his head: it was actually a mongrel dog running along the streets of Paris that got him thinking on it.  Every child in the city could tell you what a dog was: four legs, one tail, plenty of teeth, and usually a bark worse than their bite.  But no such generic dog actually existed: different colors, coats, faces, temperaments, and yes, this one only had 3 legs it turned out, but was undoubtedly a dog… we can conceptualize a “universal” dog, the generic form of a canine but did that form exist above and beyond this world, as Plato thought?  Or, was it a concept in his own mind, marvelously instantiated in every one of the critters that trotted past his window?  

But today he wasn’t thinking about stars, or spaniels, he was considering the students who had sat before him in class earlier that day.  Now a young man, Thomas of Aquino, continued to shine amongst his classmates.  The ox whose voice would shake the world, as Albert had wryly nicknamed the husky youngster a few years prior, would soon travel with him to Cologne Germany where they would study and teach there together.  But his thoughts weren’t on the students individually, but universally: how, and what, is a human being?  

Plato’s voice was at first the loudest: “The soul is most like that which is divine, immortal, intelligible, uniform, indissoluable, and ever self-consistent and invariable, whereas body is most like that which is human, mortal, multiform, unintelligible, dissoluable, and never self-consistent.”  Ok, so the eternal ‘side’ of ourselves, the perfect, permanent, most-real, depths of who we are – is the soul – destined to be released from the mortal shell that is our body.  

Plato was onto something here, and yet, the greatest philosopher who ever lived, who had also given his life as had Plato’s Socrates, had once said “in the beginning it was not so”, pointing us eternally back to the moment when God had chosen to create man, and smiled as He “saw that it was very good”.  Man, soul and body, Jesus had remined us, was very good.  What would Plato make of that?  That God, perfect, invariable, divine, would choose to create man, not a soul imprisoned in flesh, but a soul incarnate in flesh, and then, when the time had come, to become man Himself, and show man the fullness of his spiritual freedom and dignity?!  What a God we have?!  What a dignity we have?!

Augustine’s poetry next enkindled Albert’s pondering heart: “You called and shouted: and broke through my deafness. You flamed and shone: and banished my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me: and I drew in my breath and I pant for you. I have tasted you: and now I hunger and thirst for more. You have touched me: and I have burned for your peace.”  If we all yearn for God, thirsting for His fire and peace, doesn’t that mean that our souls, just like our bodies, are incomplete here below?  This jived with a new philosopher he and Thomas were just now investigating: an ancient Greek thinker named Aristotle.  His works had been lost in Europe for centuries, but now, by God’s mysterious providence, had made their way onto his desk – before most anybody else on the continent – through copies received from the Islamic scholar, Avicenna, far east of the Holy Land.  Weren’t all these musings a bit like the Aristotelian idea of the soul functioning as the form, the ordering-principle, of the body: body and soul both destined for ever-greater perfection and freedom and integrity as both were perfected together?  

He glanced out the window, and then it struck him.  Well, both the slanting rays of the setting sun and a glimpse of the answer he sought: light strikes our eyes – from a planet, or a puppy, or a person – and imparts to us data about various objects.  That data our mind, it is true, abstracts in order to articulate the general form of whatever it is we are looking at.  But, there is a form beyond that thing, not quite like Plato thought: more accurately, there is a mind beyond our mind, that has illuminated us.  A Word that has been spoken, a Truth that has been given.  We only come to the higher, beyond-this-world, knowledge because we have been given a participation in the Mind beyond-this-world, Who designed all the intelligible things we see and study … and that Intelligence also dwells within us!  Plato was right: at our heart we are beyond this world, but Aristotle also had something correct: our body and soul together image the God Who has delighted to make us intelligent like He is.  

– Fr. Rankin loves Autumn.  The trees turn gold, speeding his gratitude.  The weather turns cold, speeding his runs.  The year turns old, speeding us towards Christmas.

For the past few weeks, during our weekday masses, we have been hearing from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  This might be one of my favorite letters composed by St. Paul as it offers so many wonderful points that are central to our faith as Christians.  One passage in particular is often in my mind as I reflect on the life to which we are called as we follow the path of the Gospel:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

(Rom 8:18–21)

St. Paul speaks about the “glorious freedom of the children of God” that awaits us in Heaven, for there, we shall be freed from the slavery of sin which always threatens us in this life as a result of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve.  But thanks to Jesus Christ, this freedom is not an altogether future experience for which we hope.  It is something that has become possible already here in this life.  As St Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians: “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)  Here he is speaking of a current reality available to us, one that is possible by our own choosing as we reject sin and choose to follow the path of truth and life made available to us through the Gospel way of life.

As we continue our Family of Faith formation with Section Three of the Catechism – Life in Christ, our focus this month is the freedom that comes from following this way of life proposed by Christ and His Church.  Part of living this freedom is knowing the choices that will lead us to freedom and avoiding those things which deprive us of it.  We will therefore consider the formation of our conscience as a part of this month, an indispensable part of our training to live this gift of the freedom.  As I mentioned a couple of months ago, the moral life in Christ is made possible for us through the graces of the sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist.  To the extent that we make these two sacraments a regular part of our lives, we will experience greater freedom in this life, not because of any ability of our own, but because of God’s strength which lives in us through the sacraments.  If we think that we can survive the challenges of this life without these sacraments, we are in for a bumpy road, and the Lord has some stern words we would do well to heed: “Without me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)  But if we stay close to Christ in the sacraments and follow His teachings, we will realize what St. Paul himself came to believe by following this path: “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Let us therefore be convinced that submitting ourselves to the yoke of Christ through the sacraments, and obeying His teachings and those of the Church, we lose nothing at all.  Instead, we gain the great gift of the freedom of the children of God, already available to us in this life, and fully in the life of Heaven.

Father Alford