Being Studious and Conscientious
English Mass with Grade XI Canisius College, Jakarta
on the Memorial of St. Claude de la Colombiere – Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Introduction
Claude la Colombiere, was born at Saint-Symphorien-d’Ozon, Dauphine, southeastern France in 1641. He entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1659. Later he went to the College of Clermont in Paris for his theological studies. In 1675 he made the solemn profession of his final vows and was immediately made rector of the Jesuit College at Paray-le-Monial. During this year, Claude met Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque. She had been the recipient of visions of Jesus’ Heart but was plagued by anguish and uncertainty. She was waiting for the Lord to send her a “faithful servant and perfect friend” to help her carry out her mission: of revealing to the world the unfathomable riches of Christ’s love. Margaret Mary at once opened her inner experiences to Claude and he assured her that he accepted them as being genuine. He told her to put them in writing and promised her every support in the mission she was being given. Claude had only been a year and half in Paray, when in 1676 he was transferred to London. He had been appointed preacher to the Duchess of York, Mary of Modena, who was a Catholic and would later be queen. It was a difficult and delicate assignment in a predominantly Protestant England. Even in the Court Claude lived the life of a religious. On 15 February 1682, Claude suffered the severe haemorrhage which ended his life.
Homily
Once I read a funny status update on one of my fellow students’ bbm. It was written as: studying equals study plus dying. The status reflected her tiredness to school and to being studious. However, as one of the student who studied in a Jesuit’s college, she had a false understanding to the college life.
Being a member of a college, students have been accompanied both by their teachers and peers student to notice and pursue their own goals to live their life. Therefore, the school community should help students to be able choosing their own options. By this objective, every student will live their college life as one of the joyous and unforgettable moments of their life. Reflect more deeply, we should make distinction between things we desire and things we have been tempted. In daily routine, it is easy for us to lose our focus in life and be attracted to things that not important for life. Similarly, very often we busied ourselves with many things we wanted and could not be able sharing our times with other people.
In the gospel, St. Mark, the writer of the gospel, gives us his reflection about being conscientious and awareness of our own life. The story of Jesus who cured a blind man in Bethsaida actually a kind of makeup story which served to make us known that understanding does not instantly shape to one’s mind. It begins with a process of knowing and requires openness of one’s heart to the subject or matters. At the end, it will lead us to what we call as truth. During the process, God’s graces always available and follow us in order to make us arrive to the real truth. To make this grace bears fruit, we should have an open mind and heart also wills to what was going on. Many times in reality, we have no patience to get along with the process to gain truth. We do not open our heart and mind to many possibilities available. We became narrow-minded and believe that things should work and serve ours rather than we serve them. Conversation will stop and demands to provide ours will be rise. On that moment, we have losing our capability to aware and conscientious.
Close to this reflection, St. James speaks about men’s integrity that his belief should appear on his action. In our experiences, many times students boasted that they really proud to be a part of the Canisius College. Yet, they were acting as if they did not. Faint and mellow appearances will make you look like you were burdened and if you felt did; you should noticed maybe this school did not fit you. Here as Canisians, we are trained to be conscientious leaders and as this kind of leader, you were train to be able to make your own decision which also reflecting your openness to the common good. This will bring you to some hardship and struggles since some values and virtues will challenge your own values. The question then, are we going to take this challenge and by this also means we are open ourselves to values of common good and virtues or are we choosing to stay close to our comfort zone and let everything be entertaining and relaxing for our own good?
I will conclude this sermon by remembering you that you have been educated and formed not only to academicals outstanding, but also to gain a well-built characteristic. And like Goethe said about conducting a good characteristic, that talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world. We have been driven to reach every goals in our life not by an easy life, but by struggle and hardship which giving us a real understanding what is real living.
We ask grace of our Lord Jesus Christ helps us to stand firm and do not run from any hardship that come from life, and by doing so we are gaining our peace and joy as human being which optimistically believe we still can change this world to a better life. AMDG.
The Hero Within You
English Mass for X Graders of Canisius College, Jakarta
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 – Memorial of Sts. Rochus Gonzales, Alonso Rodriguez and John Del Castillo; Priests & Martyrs of South America
Introductory
We should be glad and feel joyous since today we are able celebrating our first english mass for this semester. It is a bold move and I really appreciate that you were responding to this offer positively. It is also a good moment for us to reflect and prays, since we are remembering some Jesuit’s priests who had been acknowledged as martyrs and saints of South America. They are: Sts. Rochus Gonzales, Alonso Rodriguez and John Del Castillo. They came to South America, mostly to Brazil as missionaries, but they ended up their life as martyrs in returned to their life witnesses to gospel by raising the life qualities of the natives. Let us pause for a moment, to come to our personal reflection and prayers as we begin our thanksgiving to our Lord through this mass.
Homily
Most people really like hearing stories of heroes and great people. You can check yourself to this idea. Recently there are lots of superhero movies were made and most of them able to reach box offices or gaining millions of money from the tickets they sold. It reflected that most people enjoy stories of people who can safe others’ life. I think it also reflect our own desire to help others or becoming hero ourselves. But for one who wants to become a hero, they should know that to be a hero is not only live their life to help others. They are great because they life their lives as they believed it.
Today, at least we can reflect to three great stories of heroism. First, we heard from the first reading, the stories of the maccabees. They were people who had keep their faith against people who liked them to give up from it and believed that their act of faith till the end of their life worth for the life itself as if martyrdom gave meanings both to death and life. It shows what it is meant that men’s life will glorify the Lord.
In the second story, we heard from Gospel that Jesus told a parable of servants who act differently according to their will against their master’s request. It is their will that made them produce differently. The story give us understandings that heroism does not build only by strengths and physical action, but also by inner freedom to act according our belief and wills.
We can take a look from the Jesuit’s martyrs we remembered today as the third story. They were as human as we are, but greatness come to their life since they were doing what they believe and follow its will. Heroes do not live for themselves, they look for what have happened surrounds them.
Therefore, we should begin to look around and learn what our surroundings need. Heroism were not a talent or just a gift, it is a call and that call have been addressed to each one of us. It is us who should respond, either we are like to accept it or we just refuse it and become like ordinary people did. However, this kind of act of choosing has its rewards too. Even in the parable Jesus mentioned it very clearly: “whoever has will be given more, but the one who has not will lose (even) the little he has.” It means to whom is able to accept their responsibilities and other’s burdens, in return will gain many experiences which were not belong to those who are refuse it. In so doing, I think heroism is about a willingness to accept our life as it meant to be. To life to its fullest and being happy with its nature. Let us ask grace to have courages to accept our own greatness and heroism as we are a hero for ourselves.
The Prayer of Fr. Rupert Mayer SJ
Lord, let happen whatever you will;
and as you will, so will I walk;
help me only to know your will!
Lord, whenever you will, then is the time; today and always
Lord, whatever you will, I wish to accept, and whatever you will for me is gain; enough that I belong to you.
Lord, because you will it, it is right;
and because you will it, I have courage.
My heart rests safely in your hands!
Returning home …
Today I decided to visit my “old house”. This page had never been updated since three years ago (December 2007). I wonder that I really was so busy with my study. … ? or maybe, I was distracted to have other things to express. Facebook seems have a better option. It’s easy and instantly I can post anything from anywhere. However, … I rarely posted anything either.
That’s weird. Last Saturday, I met my superior and he has something that make me return to my previous reflection about my life. Therefore, today I think I should return and visiting my old house. there is something here that make me felt I was meeting God here. Something I should take a look deeper. It is a something more …
Memories of Xavier – Miracle that will not fade away
Reflection on the Feast of St. Francis Xavier
Monday, December 03rd, 2007
Celebrating the feast of St. Francis Xavier today, remind me of a place that I spent for two years for my regency. I spent two great years with people full of spirit and enthusiasm who lived together in one community, namely Xavier High School Community. What unique about Xavier is: people who lived there came from different backgrounds. Most teachers and staff who joined the community as volunteers are coming from different countries. Averagely they are young people since they just graduate from colleges, even there are high school graduates. Similarly the students of Xavier also are coming from different islands of Micronesia. Despite of their differences, the community lived together in a tight bind like a family.
While I was there, I often thought about this situation. I asked myself: what was it that made us attach between one another so strongly? I found out that most people who left Xavier still miss that place so much, either they are alumnae or ex-teachers. Once I reflected to different motivation that drove them to Xavier. Most of the volunteers come to Xavier, especially the American youngsters who join the Jesuit Volunteer Service, do not choose the place by their own. They come with a motivation to do good things for other people. They simply want to be “men and women for others”. Contrary with their teachers, the students eagerly come to Xavier since they know that is the best place to have education on the region. To come to Xavier means to have opportunities to get higher-level of education. It means they can have a better life. Most leaders of the Micronesian countries are Xavier alumnae. However, even with different motivation, both students and teachers are having same challenges to come to Xavier. They should leave their common, secure and stable condition, and move out to insecurity. They leave their family and friends, change to make new relationship with new people that they do not know, even people that they find have different languages to communicate. There are so many things new to adjust, and there are also risks to be failed to adapt with them.
I notice from my reflection that God provides miracles to Xavierites, that’s how we called ourselves, instead of disaster because although we are coming with different backgrounds, we have a same spirit. We are coming to Xavier to make a better world. Kids learn a lot from their teachers how they try to give their best while teaching. Their spirit give witness to the students about what it is mean to life and to share it with others.
This reflection makes me believe Xavier is a blessing to everyone who ever experienced it. It reflects the spirit that moved the Saint himself and become a witness to the region of the works of God’s providence. Francis Xavier was an up-and-coming professor at the University of Paris when Ignatius met him. He had the whole world in front of him when Ignatius posed Jesus’ radical question to him, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mt. 16:26) The question became a turning point for him. He was gradually turned from fine scholar to dedicated saint and spent his life in bringing Christ to the Far East.
I conclude my reflection today by inviting you to learn from the Saint that we celebrate today. Let God open us to a spirit of availability. Let he give us courage to hear and respond his calling in our everyday life. Let us not prevent our selves from risks and challenges that we may face as long as we are honest to our conscience that what we are doing only for the greater glory of God. Amen.
Learned more about Xavier High School of Micronesia: www.xaviermicronesia.org
Dedicated to people from Mabuchi Hill, Chuuk, Micronesia.
PS: to Xavierites, Happy Xavier Day! I miss you all so much …
I’m Not There (2007): Re-interpreting Dylan
I’m Not There is an unconventional journey into the life and times of Bob Dylan. Six actors portray Dylan as a series of shifting personae – from the public to the private to the fantastical – weaving together a rich and colourful portrait of this ever-elusive American icon.
(taken from I’m Not There – the official website, as a tagline)
I’m Not There is a biographical film reflecting the life of musician Bob Dylan. It depicts the iconic singer-songwriter through seven distinct stages of his life by using six different actors (Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, and Cate Blanchett). It was co-written and directed by Todd Haynes.
The film has received a lot of press for telling its story using rather non-traditional techniques, much like the poetic narrative style utilized in Dylan’s songwriting. “The film is going to be inspired by Dylan’s music and his ability to re-create and re-imagine himself time and time again,” according to key producer, Christine Vachon.
The title I’m Not There is a reference to the Dylan outtake recorded during The Basement Tapes (Sessions). It was not included in the studio album The Basement Tapes and, for years, could only be found on the CD bootleg set The Genuine Basement Tapes and the later remastered version (still considered a bootleg) of that set A Tree With Roots. I’m Not There is one of the most famous and highly regarded outtakes, not just of the Basement Tapes, but of Dylan’s whole career. It was never officially released until it appeared on the film’s official soundtrack album.
The production began filming in late July 2006 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It premiered at the 34th Telluride Film Festival on August 31st and won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actress honors for Blanchett at the 64th Venice Film Festival. It opened in theaters in Italy on September 7, 2007. It was also part of the Toronto International Film Festival and played on September 14, 2007.
The film opened in limited release in the United States on November 21, 2007.
If you’re looking for an autobiographical film which tells a true life story or sort of this kind, you should not watch this movie. This one is unique, like one review that I read at IMDB. It is a “A film biography that’s complex, like its subject” (by Chris Knipp, 03 Nov 2007). It is complex since it really represent Dylan’s characters which for some may disturbed or felt uneasy by his statement and his music. Therefore, you may find that I’m Not There potrays six characters who resembled Dylan’s characters in different times. However, at the same time, by looking to these people, you may find they can be separated as different people who independently stood as themselves. Not one of them name as Dylan, or Robert Zimmerman, his real name. Their names, status and proffesions are varied. Their stories collide and entwine, adding up to an experience that is as fascinating and inexhaustible as listening to “Blood on the Tracks” or “The Basement Tapes.”
Devotees of Dylan lore will find their heads swimming with footnotes, as they track Haynes’s allusions not only to Dylan’s own music but also to the extensive secondary literature it has inspired, from books by David Hajdu and Greil Marcus to films, including D. A. Pennebaker’s 1967 documentary, “Don’t Look Back,” some of which Haynes remakes shot for shot. And if you don’t understand or know Dylan at all, you may find this movie a puzzle and complex story which let you leave the theater with headaches. But, … with those mixture that Haynes just made to his film, maybe some of you may enjoyed it as a good movie, which is smart, outspoken and leave you to think a lot about what you had seen in it.
I’m not good at making a film critic, but I just read one that I think you should conssidered to read: ‘I’m Not There:’ The multiple faces of Bob Dylan, reinvented, written by A.O. Scott, who also made a good review for Sean Penn’s Into the Wild. The Article was published on November 22, 2007 at International Heral Tribune, culture column.
by the way, … there is an interesting article from a “not-so-late” archive at Tablet which related to: how catholics should see and consider Dylan with his outspoken words and musics. The article was written by Bill McGarvey, with title: “Don’t think twice, he’s all right” (The Tablet – 17 March 2007). Read it … it’s good, McGarvey told us that Dylan actually proclaimed the same concern with the Church who see the world in “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age … these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.” (Gaudium et Spes)
also check these links:
for more information about Bob Dylan:
Love will decide
Reflection for Monday Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time – 19 November 2007
Readings: 1Mc 1: 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63; Ps 119; Lk. 18:35-43
Nothing is more practical than finding God,
that is, 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 do you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends,
what you read, who 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.
(Pedro Arrupe)
Certainly we agree that to life is to make choices. As human beings, we are surrounded by a large numbers of options. We have to make decision from things that very simple, like: a colour for your clothes, foods that you like to eat, books or movies that you want to read and watch; to things that very complicated or serious which will effect your entire life, like option to ask your love one to marry, or work harder and harder in order to pursue the career you wanted.
As we notice from the examples that I gave you, we know that we cannot grab all choices that we want. Very often when we decide something we have to give up other things as a return. Sometimes it is really easy to find what to choose since we know for sure about things that fit ourselves, but in some critical options, we do not have an easy task to decide since we often confused about what best that we have to choose. They require more from us. At the crossroad, we find pressures and domination from others, which brought us to tension and conflicts within our souls and our selves. Seldom we also have to face risks and dangers which ask ourselves to sacrifice our own life.
The reading from the Maccabees that we hear today does not only describe the struggle that the Jewish should faced during the most heroic times of their history, but also it reflect struggle that we, Christian have to face in order to be a true disciple of Christ. At that time, the Jewish people was divided by hellenization, which brought there along with Greek domination over Palestine. Some were willing to adapt to even adopt certain Greek costums, while others resisted. History made us knew who were made true choices. The sacrifice from those who refused to follow the Greek culture had known to be heroes of their faith and holy covenant. They chose God’s rather than obeyed to Greek rulers. However, if we put ourselves to those times, I think that we might agreed the choices they had were not as clear as we heard today from the reading.
These days, we faced the same problems like the Maccabees. There are people out there that were not really sure when they had to choose between God and wealth. Very often the choices that we have were not as easy as we learned from schools. Corruptions, business manipulations, law malpractices, political games, and false prophecies in religion are only some examples which illustrate the world we live today is a very confusing world.
Still, we must make choices. But, the way we chose certainly does not as same as the world had chose. In the Gospel, we find an example. The blind beggar exactly knew whom he should follow. He ask Jesus what he wanted and he knew from that moment his request also require option that he willing to take, to follow him to Jerusalem. One thing that made him followed Jesus, he just falling in love at once to the Lord.
Who Are the Saints?
Who Are the Saints?
Gospel Commentary for the Feast of All Saints’ Day
By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
Taken from Article on Zenit.org
ROME, OCT. 31, 2007 (Zenit.org).- For some time now, scientists have been sending signals into the cosmos, hoping for a response from some intelligent being on some lost planet. The Church has always maintained a dialogue with the inhabitants of another world — the saints. That is what we proclaim when we say, “I believe in the communion of the saints.” Even if inhabitants outside of the solar system existed, communication with them would be impossible, because between the question and the answer, millions of years would pass. Here, though, the answer is immediate because there is a common center of communication and encounter, and that is the risen Christ.
Perhaps in part because of the time of the year in which it falls, the feast of All Saints’ Day has something special that explains its popularity and the many traditions linked to it in some sectors of Christianity. The motive is what John says in the second reading. In this life, “we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” We are like the embryo in the womb of a mother yearning to be born. The saints have been “born” (the liturgy refers to the day of death as “the day of birth,” “dies natalis.”) To contemplate the saints is to contemplate our destiny. All around us, nature strips itself and the leaves fall, but meanwhile, the feast of the saints invites us to gaze on high; it reminds us that we are not destined to wither on this earth forever, like the leaves.
The Gospel reading is the beatitudes. One in particular inspires the selection of this passage: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, they shall be satisfied.” The saints are those who have hungered and thirsted for justice, that is, in biblical language, for sanctity. They have not resigned themselves to mediocrity; they have not been content with half-measures.
The first reading of the feast helps us to understand who the saints are. They are “those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.” Sanctity is received from Christ; it is not our own production. In the Old Testament, to be a saint meant “to be separated” from all that is impure; in the Christian understanding, it is, rather, the opposite, that is, to “be united” to Christ.
The saints, that is, the saved, are not only those mentioned in the calendar or the book of the saints. The “unknown saints” also exist: those who risked their lives for their brothers, the martyrs of justice and liberty, or of duty, the “lay saints,” as someone has called them. Without knowing it, their robes have also been washed in the blood of the Lamb, if they have lived according to their consciences and if they have been concerned with the good of their brothers.
A question spontaneously arises: What do the saints do in heaven? The answer is, also here, in the first reading: The saved adore, they prostrate themselves before the throne, exclaiming, “Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving …” The true human vocation is fulfilled in them, that of being “praise to the glory of God” (Ephesians 1:14). Their choir is directed by Mary, who continues her hymn of praise in heaven, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” It is in this praise that the saints find their happiness and joy. “My spirit rejoices in God.” A man is who he loves and who he admires. Loving and praising God, we identify ourselves with God, participate in his glory and in his own happiness.
One day, a saint, St. Symeon the New Theologian, had a mystical experience of God that was so strong he exclaimed to himself, “If paradise is no more than this, it is enough for me.” But the voice of Christ told him, “You are very poor if you content yourself with this. The joy you have experienced in comparison to paradise is like the sky painted on paper in comparison to the real sky.”
—————–
[Translation by ZENIT]
Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher. The readings for the feast of All Saints are Revelation 7:2-4,9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Mathew 5:1-12a.
Blogged with Flock
From John Dear’s Column on NCR
The beatification of Franz Jägerstätter was consoling, inspiring and uplifting
By John Dear SJ
Created Oct 30 2007 – 10:50There were many consoling, inspiring and uplifting moments last Friday, Oct. 26, in Linz, Austria, at the beatification of the anti-war hero Franz Jägerstätter. The resounding applause for his 94 year-old widow Franziska. The reading of the declaration. The unfurling of the 30 foot banner with Franz’s photo and the sight of dozens of bishops and cardinals standing up, looking up — at last! — to Franz. But the most moving was the presentation of his relics. Franziska kissed them, gave them to a cardinal for the cathedral in Linz, then wept. She knows it now. Franz no longer belongs to Austria. Now he belongs to the world. And his work is just beginning.
This celebration, for me, was the best events in the institutional church in recent decades, and one of its most political, daring and hopeful. If the institutional church now says Franz was right, then Ratzinger was wrong, nearly all the Catholics of Austria and Germany were wrong, and the church has the potential to wake up and return to the Gospel nonviolence of its ancient history. Franz he is still a force of controversy throughout Austria, but he is the closest saint in recent centuries to resemble those daring, early Christians. This is exactly what we need: saints who inspire us to follow the nonviolent Jesus, say No to war, resist the culture of war, speak out for peace, work for justice, and combine the full mystical and political dimensions of faith.
The witness of Franz Jägerstätter has been at the heart of my own journey. My grandmother gave me a booklet about Franz while I was at Duke University, trying to decide what to do with my life. I was stunned by this story of a young father, husband, and farmer, born on May 20, 1907, who was called into active service by the Nazis in February, 1943, politely refused, was imprisoned in Linz, condemned to death for “undermining military morale,” and beheaded on Aug. 9, 1943. His witness encouraged me to become a Jesuit and an advocate for peace, justice and nonviolence. “Consider two things: from where, to where,” Franz wrote his godson from prison, just a few weeks before his execution. “Then your life will have its true meaning.” I’ve been trying to take his good advice.
In 1985, I read Gordon Zahn’s ground-breaking biography, In Solitary Witness, while living in a refugee camp in El Salvador. In the 1990s, I made a pilgrimage to St. Radegund to pray at Franz’ grave and visit Franziska and the Jägerstätters. It was a joy and a blessing to embrace her and her family last week. (We also learned that my friend Gordon, who has suffered for years with Alzheimer’s, just entered a hospice program and may be approaching his last days.)
On the night before the celebration, nearly a hundred Pax Christi members from Austria, England and the United States gathered for a meal and reflections on Franz’s life. The two-hour Mass on Friday morning was broadcast live on national TV in Austria and Germany. Afterwards, our Pax Christi contingent processed through the streets of Linz, stopping first at the bishops’ house where Franz went for counsel only to be told to fight for Hitler. (It was there, Franziska says, that he emerged from the building feeling very sad and said, “They don’t dare themselves, or it’ll be their turn next.”) Then we stood in the courtyard of the building that the Nazis turned into a prison, where he was held a few months before being transferred to Berlin. (His cell, on the second floor overlooking the courtyard, is now a business office.) Then we crossed the Danube, took a tram up the mountain to a church overlooking the city and the Alps, and enjoyed a special lunch. Later, many attended the new opera written about Franz, and celebrated a feast in honor of Franz and Franziska hosted by the governor. A holy day to remember!
Throughout the pilgrimage, I reflected on the famous dream Franz had, which pushed him to say no to war. In 1938, he dreamt of a beautiful train and huge crowds rushing to board it. Then he heard a voice saying, “This train is going to hell!” Next he saw a vision of many people suffering. He awoke terrified and told Franziska, then later wrote about it from prison. The dream, he wrote, was about Nazi patriotism, idolatry and warmaking.
But I wonder if his nightmare was about all patriotism, idolatry and warmaking, our global rush to violence, killing, war and nuclear weapons. His dream describes our quiet, steady support for American imperialism, military domination, war on Iraq and Afghanistan, corporate greed, environmental destruction, and ignoring the cry of the world’s poor. Franz wrote fiercely about the loss of our soul. We are losing our souls and we don’t know it, he said. “I would like to call out to everyone who is riding in this train: ‘Jump out before this train reaches its destination, even if it costs you your life!’”
That is what many of us are saying. Like Franz, we’re trying not to get on the train to hell, even though crowds rush to board it, and we’re crying out, “Don’t get on this train. Don’t support the culture of war. Don’t make nuclear weapons at Los Alamos. Don’t spend your life becoming rich while 900 million starve. Don’t worship the flag of empire. Become a conscientious objector, a nonviolent resister, a public peacemaker, a Christian.”
But what astonishes me most is that Franz didn’t just reason his way to oppose an unjust war (which is what most good people conclude about him: he realized that Nazi warfare was unjust, so he refused to fight, and did the right thing.) I believe Franz went much farther. With Franziska, he climbed the heights of faith, the kind that moves mountains. “He prayed all day long,” one of his cellmates testified. He received daily Communion, gave to those in need, spoke out as necessary, tried to teach his priests and bishops, prepared for death and tried to do all things for the honor of God. He became a person of deep mystical prayer, and made the connection between Gospel politics and Gospel spirituality. By the time of his death, I submit, Franz understood that to follow the nonviolent Jesus and give one’s entire life to God meant that you could never kill, support war, or compromise with evil.
“Just as those who believe in Nazism tell themselves that their struggle is for survival,” he wrote from prison, “so must we, too, convince ourselves that our struggle is for the eternal Kingdom. But with this difference: we need no rifles or pistols for our battle but, instead, spiritual weapons…Let us love our enemies, bless those who curse us, pray for those who persecute us. For love will conquer and will endure for all eternity. And happy are they who live and die in God’s love.”
On the morning of his death, Fr. Albert Jochmann, the pastor of Brandenburg, visited Franz in his cell, brought him Communion and heard his confession. He also offered a Bible. “I am completely united with God and any reading would disrupt my union with God,” Franz said to the priest’s amazement. That day, he wrote to Franziska in his last letter, “The heart of Jesus, the heart of Mary and my heart are one, united for time and eternity.”
Who dares say such a thing? The recent collection of letters by Mother Teresa, which I read on the plane to Austria, testify clearly that she never felt such union with God. Few do. Franz did. It was the natural culmination of his steadfast, wholehearted pursuit of God and God’s reign of peace, which required both nonviolent resistance to idolatry, empire and war, and full-time devotion to prayer, worship and nonviolent love. As the world’s violence worsens, I think Franz will emerge as one of history’s greatest saints.
Franz never gave up on the church, even though every single priest, pastor, chaplain and bishop he knew advised him to fight for the Nazis, for the sake of his wife and children. He held his ground, felt sad, and prayed for them. On the day of his execution, Fr. Jochmann told Franz about an Austrian priest, Fr. Franz Reinisch, who had recently been executed for refusing to fight. This report consoled Franz a great deal. (Now we know that some 4,000 priests were killed by the Nazis.) Like Franz, we have to reach out and convert every priest, pastor, bishop and cardinal who supports war, nuclear weapons, and patriotic imperialism to the Gospel wisdom of active love, nonviolent resistance and steadfast peacemaking.
Because Franz Jägerstätter broke new ground, we do not have to do this work alone. Yes, we may be harassed, even arrested and imprisoned, but unlike Franz, we will not be alone. We can join and form communities of peace and justice to help each other take a stand for peace, support one another, and speak out in one voice against our nation’s wars and injustices. Together, we can build movements to say our No to the School of the Americas, the U.S. war on Iraq, bombing Iran, and building nuclear weapons at Los Alamos, and like Franz, help one another plumb the mystical depths of Gospel nonviolence until we, too, are completely united with Jesus, Mary and the God of peace.
“We must do everything in our power to strive toward the Eternal Homeland and to preserve a good conscience,” Franz wrote from prison. “Though we must bear our daily sorrows and reap little reward in this world for doing so, we can still become richer than millionaires–for those who need not fear death are the richest and happiest of all. And these riches are there for the asking.” “There have always been heroes and martyrs who gave their lives for Christ and their faith. If we hope to reach our goal some day, then we, too, must become heroes of the faith.”
“If one harbors no thought of vengeance against others and can forgive everyone,” he wrote, “he will be at peace in his heart — and what is there in all this world more lovely than peace? Let us pray to God that a real and lasting peace may soon descend upon this world.”
“The crucial lesson to be learned,” Gordon Zahn declared, “is that, however hopeless the situation or seemingly futile the effort, the Christian need not despair. Instead he can and should be prepared to accept and assert moral responsibility for his actions. It is always possible, as Jägerstätter wrote, to save one’s own soul and perhaps some others as well by bearing individual witness against evil.”
“Through his bitter suffering and death,” Franz wrote, “Christ freed us only from eternal death, not from temporal suffering and mortal death. But Christ, too, demands a public confession of our faith, just as the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, does from his followers. The commandments of God teach us, of course, that we must render obedience to secular rulers. But only to the extent that they do not order us to do anything evil, for we must obey God rather than men.”
“A prophet with a global view and a penetrating insight.” “A shining example in his fidelity to the claims of his conscience.” “An advocate of nonviolence and peace, a voice of warning against ideologies, a deep-believing person for whom God really was the core and center of life.” This is how the bishop of Linz described our blessed Franz last week. Let’s hope and pray for more saints, prophets and martyrs like Franz, and try our best to emulate him.
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Martyrdom as a reality
Martyrdom A Real Possibility, Says Pope
Encourages All Christians to a Life of Daily Sacrifice
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- After noting the beatification of 498 Spanish martyrs, Benedict XVI affirmed that all Christians should be ready to give their lives for Christ.
The Pope said this today before leading the midday Angelus, and after the largest beatification ceremony in the history of the Church, held today in St. Peter’s Square. In the celebration, presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the Church recognized as blessed 498 martyrs from the religious persecution in 1930s Spain.
The Holy Father said, “Adding such a great number of martyrs to the list of beatified persons shows that the supreme witness of giving blood is not an exception reserved only to some individuals, but a realistic possibility for all Christian people. It includes men and women of different ages, vocations and social conditions, who pay with their lives in fidelity to Christ and his Church.”
The Pontiff said that fidelity to Christ, even to the point of giving one’s life, is rooted in baptism.
“Their example gives witness to the fact that baptism commits Christians to participate boldly in the spread of the Kingdom of God, cooperating if necessary with the sacrifice of one’s own life,” he said. “Certainly not everyone is called to a bloody martyrdom. There is also an unbloody ‘martyrdom,’ which is no less significant, such as that of Celina Chludzinska Borzecka, wife, mother, widow and religious, beatified yesterday in Rome: It is the silent and heroic testimony of many Christians who live the Gospel without compromises, fulfilling their duty and dedicating themselves generously in service to the poor.
“This martyrdom of ordinary life is a particularly important witness in the secularized societies of our time. It is the peaceful battle of love that all Christians, like Paul, have to fight tirelessly; the race to spread the Gospel that commits us until death. May Mary, Queen of Martyrs and Star of Evangelization, help us and assist us in our daily witness.”
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