Feb. 17, 2019 [ 06 Sunday, ordinary time]
• Jeremiah 17:5-8 • Psalm 1 • 1 Corinthians 15:12,16-20 • + Luke 6:17, 20-26 •
Title: “Memorial Day. McCarrick. Mourning.”
“This is Part 1. Memorial Day”
[_01_] On Saturday of Memorial Day
weekend 2006, I was on the sidewalk outside the cathedral in Newark. The ordination-Mass for priests would start
in about one hour. The ordination for my classmates and me.
On the sidewalk, at the cathedral
church door, I bumped into some of my parents’ friends who had been invited,
made the trip, driven to the cathedral, enthusastically. Or maybe not? In
this brief encounter, I overheard 1 person said to another … hey, Ray, I cannot
believe you made it here, .you know this cathedral ordination-Mass is 3 hours
long!
To which he immediately started
calling out to his wife and was very concerned that was not ready to be in
church for 3 hours.. Yet, he stayed…all
3 hours.
I am now certain that his wife read my
invitation and hid it from him. Ordination as a priest is such a big deal that
its time is measured – in hours – and this time is also concealed or made
secret when necessary.
I also remember all of my family and
friends dressing their absolute best …wearing suits and ties and formal attire
– on Memorial Day … that really touched me too.
[_02_] Nevertheless, to be ordained a priest is
not just about what happens externally or how long it takes…to exercise
ministry as a priest is not just about what happens externally. Also..in a
sense, it is a lot longer than 3 hours…because I am still learning..!
And, I recognize and give thanks for
the priests through whom I have learned about the ministry, through all the
priests of Lourdes that I have ever known and Deacon Ernest Abad and my
classmates and brothers at the seminary.
[_03_]
And, this education – to be a priest – started before the seminary and included
the love of my mother and father, their sacrifices for me, their forgiveness of
me, of each other, their teaching me about what it means to be honest, to pray,
to protect and shelter another person, and to make a lifelong commitment … and
to recognize that being in “authority” or “leadership” does not make you better
than anyone else. It could make your worse
!
I had an outstanding upbringing which
was complemented by parish priests, by the religious Christian Brothers at my
high school and the Sisters of Charity at my elementary school. All prepared me
for ordination day and beyond.
And…even prepared me – later – for
times that I would need to learn – relearn and even be corrected in my
understanding. I don’t know it all.
And..all those people who came to a
3-hour Mass of Ordination and dressed up in suits and formal attire on Memorial
Day Weekend, they did not dress their best for me … (“James Ferry“ / “Father
James Ferry”), but for our Lord and Savior, the one true high priest. When you
come to Communion, for example, you say Amen not to me but Jesus Christ, our
true high priest.
“This is Part 2. McCarrick” [_04_] At this time of the disclosure of scandal
and the criminal, sinful abuse by priests of children in their care – and the
coverup’s by many of their superiors, I remind you we are here also because of
our one high priest, Jesus Christ.
We are all related to the one priest
Jesus Christ by whom you are baptized, to whom you confess your sins, from whom
you receive the Body and Blood of Holy Communion and receive God’s word in
countless ways.
I express my sorrow for myself and
on your behalf, I am sorry to the victims, to every mother or father whose
child was harmed and hurt and whose complaint was spurned or ignored.
I am not sorry that I
am a priest. I am sorry because I am a priest and share in this one mission
of peace and consolation to you, the people of God.
[_05_] It is, of course, devastating to victims to
know that such abusive behavior was covered up or ignored and that a former archbishop
of this archdiocese is not only implicated in such coverup’s but also judged guilty
of the abuse himself.
Because – in reality – the Church already has
the keys of justice, of the commandments, of God’s love that enables all of the
bishops discipline their priests properly or to remove them from ministry when
necessary.
This is the problem now …
As
journalist Kenneth Woodward wrote last year ….
Yes, they [many Catholic bishops
and leaders] sought to protect the church from scandal—only to produce a far
greater scandal—and yes, they sought to
maintain the image of the priesthood, only to see it [the image associated with
criminal acts]. But the real horror is that, unlike most human beings, too many
bishops simply could not identify with the youthful victims of predatory
priests, or with their outraged [mothers and fathers].” (Kenneth L. Woodward,
"Double Lives The Peril of Clerical Hypocrisy", Commonweal, October
26, 2018)
Priesthood – and ministry is not
something we do …it is who we are, it is who I am.
I, am, not the whole Church or even
the whole of Our Lady of Lourdes. Together, we are the Body of Christ and the
Church.
“This is Part 3. Mourning”
[_06_] This
Sunday, we read from the Beatitudes.
When we think of someone in mourning, we may
reflexively think of someone moving slowly, like a funeral procession.
But, if you have been to a funeral,
you know that the person in mourning is often poised, trying to multi-task and
multi-thread faster than your 64-bit laptop and also is very much in the
moment. Mourning is not simply about the past or a previous history.
If we acknowledge, for example, that
we are in mourning, we are often better equipped to face the day and face the
consequences and face the future then if we log off in some self-centered way.
For example, I may experience - all
of us may experience - mourning about the price or cost of some act of
sinfulness or selfishness.
We may experience this mourning - or sorrow -
if we have been hurt by someone else. But, once we admit we are in mourning, I
believe we are also on the way to healing.
B16 writes about this as the 2 types of mourning contrasting - after Good Friday - the mourning of Judas Iscariot who is in complete despair and ends his life that way. O.T.O.H (“on the other hand”), there is Peter who denies/betrays (3x over!), also in mourning, but is able to persevere and reconnect with our Savior. (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism-Transfiguration, New York: Image Publishing, 2007, p. 86)
[_07] MOURNING / WHAT TO SAY.
Here is another thing about
MOURNING, GRIEF, SORROW. We often do not know what to say. Or we may be
astounded at the foolish or disconnected statements of others.
I do not have all the answers for
you about the Archdiocese of Newark, the Archbishop of Newark for whom a great
earthly day of reckoning and Law & Order - Special Victims Unit
episode is being experienced.
The Archdiocese must now use their
keys to unlock files and show everything to the New Jersey Attorney General to
ensure there are no cover-up's.
We also mourn and are called to pray
for the victims. We may not know what to say, we may be at a loss for words.
Yet we are called to
pray
for intercession of our Blessed Mother to console and heal the victims and,
we hope, connect them to Jesus our
Savior and her son.
“Blessed are those who mourn for
they will be comforted.”
We do need each other at this time
even if we do not know what to say.
[_08_] In
2011, my uncle passed away after an extended illness. He and my aunt were
married for 45 years and were very close. My aunt missed her husband very much.
She was in mourning. We all knew she
was grieving – within the family – we knew but we also knew she would continue
to socialize and do things on her own.
It’s not easy to enter social situations after your spouse has died.
One night, about 6 months after my
uncle passed away she went to a church parish function at her church… As the
night wore on, she began to think more and more, and was overcome with tears
and emotions, standing on the steps and someone came up to her and asked if she
was OK.
She responded, “Well you know, I lost
my husband…”
And, the person, confused – not
knowing what to say turned back toward the party … and said… “you mean …just know… in there?”
It’s not easy to mourn in public, to
let others know, to let others, but it does open us to God’s blessings in our
lives. I know this sounds like a very sad story, but my aunt, my family and I
were able to see the both the beauty and humor – and we laughed about it –
later.
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