Today February 28

Today is the memorial of Saint Romanus, yet another of the beloved Desert Fathers. When Abba Romanus (abbots were called "Abba" in those days) was at the point of death, his disciples gathered round him and said, "How ought we to conduct ourselves?" The old man said to them, "I do not think I have ever told one of you to do something, without having first made the decision not to get angry, if what I said were not done; and so we have lived in peace all our days." That's all I have on St. Romanus! But it's enough, isn't it? He'd make a good psychologist, I think -- or even a Buddhist.

February 27

Today is the memorial of St. Gabriel Possenti, also known as St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. This was one headstrong guy. Bright, tough, Jesuit-trained, college graduate, he lived life on his own terms. He became deathly ill and promised to give his life to God if he recovered. He did. You only THINK you know the rest of the story . . . He then returned to his old hard-working, hard-playing ways. He got sick again and . . . what do they say? "Prayer. The last refuge of a scoundrel." He promised to convert if he were made well; he recovered and THIS time he made good on his promise. He entered the Passionist order, did great penance, prayed, worked and preached. He was ordained not long before he died of tuberculosis. But he finally was a happy man.

I think St. Gabriel is kind of interesting. Although he died young, he had something in common with so-called "late vocations" because he'd lived quite a life before becoming a priest: he'd been devoted to pursuing the ladies, the theater and the hunt. He was quite the crack shot, as a matter of fact. And a good thing, too. When Garibaldi's victorious army ran rampant through Gran Sasso, doing what armies do, you know, St. Gabriel ran out of the seminary and defended a young would-be rape victim. When the two men wouldn't stop, Gabriel deftly pulled the pistols from their holsters and trained them on the two men. He told them to back off, and just so they'd get the message, he took a bead on a tiny lizard he spotted in the road and blasted him to kingdom come. You can bet those soldiers took off running!

In recent years, a lame-brained movement to make St. Gabriel "the patron saint of handgunners" has arisen. It's not that they have any particular devotion to today's saint; no, you could say that their devotion is all for the Second Amendment. They're Catholic, and so they went searching through hagiographical texts looking for someone, anyone whose story could be used to advocate private gun ownership. They must have had quite a time of it, because most of our saints had never even SEEN a handgun! Well, they twisted St. Gabriel's story into the poster child of their cause, but I think it's wrong-headed. Gabriel wasn't for gun OWNERSHIP -- re-read the story. He took a military man's handgun and turned it on HIM in order to stop a rape. A more natural patronage for this man would be for rape victims and their advocates. Perhaps even for civilian control of the military .

Homily: First Sunday of Lent: 2007

Brothers and sisters, we too have been "led by the Spirit into the desert" for these forty days when we can fast and pray. We should rejoice that the Spirit gives us this great season to clean house, so to speak, to settle down, to prepare for the great feast of Easter and in a great phrase a friend of mine used the other day, "get our head together". Now, as we fast . . . taking one meal a day on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, with the possibility of two other light meals, both of which together do not add up to the main meal, and with no snacking in between, and as we abstain . . . no meat on either of those days nor any of the Fridays of Lent, and as we pray and give alms, or charity, to the poor, we are brought up short against the realities of our faith and forced to confront how we live up to it. I've always thought that our observant Jewish brothers have the advantage over us now that the laws concerning the "Friday sacrifice" and the season-long fasting of former Lents have been relaxed, in that they are constantly and gently reminded of their faith whenever they eat, since they must "keep kosher" and never let dairy touch meat! :) But we, starting on the glorious first day of our 40-day season, Ash Wednesday, receive a real "sacramental," a real tangible reminder of our faith in the form of ashes. We put on ashes in the form of a cross and go out into the world, veritably shouting that we are not of it! Sometimes we run up against obstacles to our faith -- questions ("What is that smudge on your head?"), challenges ("What? You can't come to work right at 5 on Wednesday because of some CHURCH thing?"), or downright temptations ("Wash your face. You look ridiculous.") How do we handle them? Well, how did Our Blessed Lord handle them?

I think it's significant that Jesus got all three of the major sources of temptation in this life, all at once: the world, the flesh, and the devil. But I think it's also significant that He didn't get them in that order. He got them in (increasing) order: the flesh (bread), the devil ("worship me"), and the world (do your own thing). And He resisted them: firmly, strongly, and even politely! What class! What grace! What power! But why should we be surprised? He is the Almighty, after all. But if I may venture to say, the point of the Gospel is not wow, He did it, but to show US how to handle the questions, challenges, and temptations of life.

The flesh is the first, the purely physical, the seemingly strongest but really the weakest of the three. Now, usually we think of that in terms of sexual temptation, and that surely is one of them. But here it was temptation in the form of satisfying another kind of hunger, a purely physical one, but a strong one nonetheless. Jesus refused to perform some kind of unnecessary sign, to obey the devil, to stoop to magic or something unworthy of him just to stave off the hunger. He was strong and He was persevering, like the worthy athlete, as St. Paul was to use as a comparison later.

The devil himself is the next, of a more insidious and much more powerful nature, clever and horrible and unfortunately unrelenting. And he is very much alive and well in our world today. You don't have to conjure him with illicit games and seances to see him in action; I think we all have come across evil if not firsthand, at least looking at many of our headlines will make that clear to us. And I think we all have heard his whispers . . . pointless destructive impulses we pick up, malicious ideas we never thought we'd have, bloodcurdling scenes of what we think of as justifiable revenge, impure images and scenarios we'd never thought to entertain . . . these may all be from him. And they all have one purpose: "Worship me." But Jesus doesn't fall for it, of course, no matter how sweetened it may be with promises of money, power and glory. He responds with the thundering words of faith: "It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord . . .' "

And finally, the whole wicked world. The world is very deterministic, you know. Very fatalistic. Do whatever you want, because, and I know you've heard this one . . . "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen and there's nothing you can do about it." I've heard this one in reference to contraception, believe it or not. Go ahead and "protect" yourself; if God wants you to become pregnant, then you will! But, brothers and sisters, how cynical is that?! And how does Jesus respond? "It also says, 'You shall not tempt the Lord, your God' " Or as the priest in Garrison Keillor's "Lake Woebegone" would say, simply, "If you're not going to Minneapolis, why are you on the train to there?" :)

Let us now profess our faith.