'Shared grief for a man of God, a true follower of Jesus Christ.' Sunday Reflections, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Fr Rufus Halley

1944-2001

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 18:15:20 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Fr Rufus Halley with friends in Mindanao

Fr Rufus Halley, from County Waterford in Ireland, was one year behind me in the seminary. We both worked in the Philippines. After working in Luzon for many years, where he had become fluent in Tagalog, he asked to be transferred to the predominantly Muslin Prelature of Marawi in Mindanao where we Columbans had worked for many years. There he became fluent in two more Filipino languages, Cebuano-Visayan, spoken by the Christians in the Prelature, and Maranao, spoken by the majority of Muslims in that area. Over the years he built up great trust with many Muslims. There was a long history of mistrust between the two communities. At times this broke out into warfare.

Because of the trust he had built up he received an extraordinary request: to mediate in a dispute between two Muslim clans that could become violent. This was an extraordinary request at three levels: he was a foreigner, a Christian and a priest. He agreed to the request but sought the advice of a Muslim elder who wasn't involved in the dispute.

There was much going back and forth between the two leaders, and visits to the elder for guidance, but it finally reached the point where the two leaders agreed to meet in the presence of Father Rufus. There was still an air of tension when they came together. However, they agreed to end the dispute. A few days later the Columban priest happened to drop by the house of one of the two leaders. He found the other there, the two of them drinking coffee and laughing together. 

This whole event was one of the highlights of Father Rufus's life and his face would light up whenever he would recount it.

For me, Father Rufus was living out today's gospel in a very difficult situation. His goal was, with God's grace, to bring about peace and reconciliation. The leaders of the two clans were also men of faith and the words of Jesus were realised: For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

On the afternoon of 28 August 2001, the feast of St Augustine, Father Rufus was ambushed while on his way home on his motorcycle from an interfaith meeting with Muslim religious leaders and shot dead. 

Where did Father Rufus draw his strength from? His close friend Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, Archbishop Emeritus of Manila, wrote in an article for Misyon, the magazine of the Columbans in the Philippines of which I was editor at the time. In the last two paragraphs of his article Cardinal Rosales wrote:  

I knew of the intensity with which Father Rufus lived his own Christian faith, how he began each day with an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, the centrality of the Mass in his life. A big influence on him was the life of Blessed Charles de Foucauld, 1858-1916, beatified on 13 November 2005. This Frenchman was also from a privileged background. Unlike Pareng Rufus, he lost his Catholic faith and became a notorious playboy before re-discovering it, partly through the example of Muslims living in North Africa. He spent many years as a priest living among the poorest Muslims in a remote corner of the Sahara, pioneering Christian-Muslim dialogue by discovering himself as the Little Brother of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and as the Little Brother of the Muslims who came knocking at his hermitage door.

(Pope France canonised Charles de Foucauld last year. Pareng is a Tagalog word expressing respect for a male friend.)

St Charles de Foucauld, c.1907

[Wikipedia; photo]

The Cardinal continued: 

On 1 December 1916 Charles de Foucauld died at the hands of a young gunman outside his hermitage and on 28 August 2001 Pareng Rufus died at the hands of gunmen who ambushed him as he was riding on his motorcycle from a meeting of Muslim and Christian leaders in Balabagan to his parish in Malabang. The local people, both Christian and Muslim, mourned for him deeply. The grief of the Muslims was all the greater because the men who murdered my Pareng Rufus happened to be Muslims. The death of this great missionary priest brought both communities together in their shared grief for a man of God, a true follower of Jesus Christ.

Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lá Breithe na Maighdine Beannaithe Muire

High Altar of St Mary

St Mary’s Church, Kraków, Poland

Veit Stoss [Web Gallery of Art]

What a magnificent and worthy setting for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!

I am preparing Sunday Reflections on the Feast of the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Last week I came across the video below on Facebook and shared it. It is a setting of the Hail Mary and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Litany of Loreto, by Sam C. Ezugwu, and performed by Trinity Choir, St Luke's Catholic Church, Kubwa, and Amemuso Choir. The full credits are at the end of the video. Kubwa is located in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

Columban Ordinations in the Philippines

On Saaaturday 9 September at 4:00PM local time Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco of Cubao will ordain two Columban seminarians to the diaconate in the chapel of our formation house in Quezon City. One is Iowane Naio from Fiji, the other Nbwi La Aung, Francis Xavier from Myanmar, the first Columban from that country to become a deacon. The Columbans first went to Fiji in 1952 and to Myanmar, then Burma, in 1936.

Please remember our two young deacons in your prayers.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-10-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 5:25-26; 6:1-10. Gospel: Luke 7:11-16.

The Raising of the Young Man at Nain

German Miniaturist [Web Gallery of Art]