Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelMatthew 10:26-33 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that
time: Jesus instructed his Apostles: ‘Have no fear of them, for nothing is
covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I
tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim
on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two
sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart
from your Father knowing. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who
acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in
heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who
is in heaven.’
I think it was during the summer of 1968, a few months after my ordination, that my parents and I visited the motherhouse of the Columban Sisters in Magheramore, County Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland. We were deeply struck by the extraordinary gentle warmth of Sister Joan Sawyer from Country Antrim, Northern Ireland, who showed us around.
In December 1983 when I was giving a retreat to Columban Sisters in their convent in San Juan, Metro Manila, we got the shocking news of her violent death in Lima, Peru.
Joan Sawyer was a Columban Sister who was shot dead in Lima, Peru, in December 1983. She used to go to the Lurigancho Prison in Lima three or four days a week to visit the prisoners there. The prison held over 5,000 men. Conditions were bad. Out of 5,000 prisoners only 1,000 were sentenced. The rest were pending sentence or perhaps innocent. Joan used try to bring them some relief - medicines for some, a kind word for others, news about how she was progressing with their legal papers in the ministry for Justice, etc.
The large majority of prisoners came, in her own words, 'from the poor sectors of Lima where they never had enough to eat, didn't finish school and couldn't find decent work'. On the morning of 14 December 1983 a group of prisoners decided that at all costs they were going to escape. They took as hostages Joan Sawyer, three Marist Sisters and social workers. After all-day negotiations with the prison authorities it was agreed that the prisoners and their hostages would be allowed leave the prison in the evening in an ambulance, the most inconspicuous mode of travel for getting out unnoticed.
They were no sooner outside the prison gate than waiting police riddled the ambulance with bullets from all sides. Four bullets struck Joan, one through the back of the neck, two through her leg and one through her finger. When removed from the ambulance she was dead. Joan Sawyer was born in Donegore, County Antrim, in 1932. She entered the Columban Sisters in 1949 having previously worked as a secretary in Belfast. Subsequently she took her BA degree in Mundelein College, Chicago. She went to Peru in 1977 and was 51 years old at the time of her death.
Hilary Cross, Sr Joan's niece, visited Lima for the 30th anniversary of the death of her Aunty Joan. In an article in the English newspaper The Guardian she tells of the two great sacrifices made by her grandfather, George Sawyer, Sister Joan's father. George was a Protestant who married a Catholic, Brigid Deegan, in the 1920s in the newly independent Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland. They had a mixed marriage in the 1920s, and it was hard to find their place in a free state that wasn't really so free. So they moved north; my grandfather, George, the eldest son, losing his family farm for love of a sweet girl, Brigid, from 'the other side'. They settled in Donegore, near Antrim, where George's love of the land led him to labour on another man's farm.
The article continues: Joan was the youngest of seven. Although all were much loved, it was said that 'wee Joan' held a special place in her father's heart. Gentle, slight, spirited and with a deep faith, she left at the age of 17 to join a convent in the remote west of Ireland. That day George retreated to the land, unable to say goodbye. A man of great faith himself, he must have struggled to reconcile whose sacrifice this was, his love of a Catholic girl had lost him more than just his farm.
Hilary Cross at her Aunty Joan's grave
The Story of Sr Joan Sawyer, formerly on the website of her native parish in Northern Ireland, quotes from a letter written by a prisoner named Julio in Lurigancho Prison: Minutes before Sister Juanita [as she was known in Peru] was taken hostage I was speaking to her when she came with a packet sent in with her by my mother. I can still see her eyes which reached to eternity. Her love, pure and gentle, which reflected her great love for people. Her spirit of kindness and sacrifice towards us prisoners will be my most precious memory.
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul (today's Gospel).
You may read more about Sister Joan on the website of the Columban Sisters here, here, here and here. The website is also the source of the photos above.
For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. 13 As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
GospelLuke 10:1-12, 17-20 or 10:1-9 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)
At that time:
The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by
two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to
them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray
earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go
your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry
no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever
house you enter, first say, “Peace be to this house!” And if a son of peace is
there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And
remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the
labourer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter
a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it
and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
[But whenever you enter a
town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, “Even the dust
of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know
this, that the kingdom of God has come near.” I tell you, it will be more
bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.’
The seventy-two returned
with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And
he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have
given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this,
that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in
heaven.’]
The July 2019 issue of Magnificat, a pocket-sized monthly magazine that is a prayer book and Missal that I highly recommend, has this story of St Justin Martyr who died c.165. He was a philosopher who attached himself to philosophical schools in different places.
One day, while walking along the beach in Ephesus, Justin met an old man who told him of the teachings of the Hebrew prophets and their fufilment in the person of Jesus Christ. 'My spirit was immediately set on fire,' Justin wrote later.
I remember the late Columban Fr Cyril Hally, a New Zealander, pointing out to us in the seminary that when the Apostles went to their different mission fields they found some Christians there before them. Christians who travelled, such as merchants, who spoke about Jesus Christ to those they met and many a spirit was immediately set on fire.
Columban Fr Joseph Hogan from Dublin, where the Legion of Mary was born, introduced the movement to China, where it later produced many martyrs. He died in Shanghai on 6 July 1946. And Columban Fr Seán Savage who died on 7 July 1994 is credited with introducing the Legion to Korea. May they both rest in peace.
During some summer vacations in my seminary years I went onPeregrinatio Pro Christo- Pilgrimage For Christ - with theLegion of Mary. 'PPC', as Legionaries usually call it, was partly inspired by the spirit of Irish monks such as St Columbanus (Columban) and St Columcille (Columba) who left Ireland in the Sixth Century for other countries, Columban to the European mainland and Columba to Iona, Scotland, in the modern Diocese of Argyll and the Isles where I spent two months in parish work during the summer of 2013. I also spent two short periods working there in the summer of 1997 in the Gaelic-speaking islands of Barra and South Uist.
Legionaries go to another country or to another region in their own country for at least a week, usually at the invitation of a particular parish. In 1963 I was in St Anne's Parish, Edge Hill, near the centre of Liverpool, around the time The Beatles, from that city, were becoming world famous. Two years later I was in St Fergus's Parish, Ferguslie, Paisley, very near Glasgow, and in 1966 in Pewsey, a lovely village in rural Wiltshire in England's beautiful West Country. I arrived there on the day England won the World Cup in football against West Germany and watched the game in a cafe in Bristol.
On PPC most of the Legionaries have never met each other before but they establish a close bond very quickly. Instead of a weekly meeting, as they have in their own praesidium, as a branch is called (the Legion takes its terminology from the ancient Roman Legions), they meet daily. Each meeting includes prayers at the beginning, including the Rosary, the middle and the end, a reading from the Handbook, reporting by each member on work done, a short talk or allocutio from the spiritual director, and assignments for the coming week, two hours for senior members.
On PPC this takes place every day, as does the work. And it is usually much longer than two hours. Most of those taking part give up part of their own vacations and pay their own way, though they are usually hosted by local families, just like the 72 in the gospel.
Just like the disciples in today's Gospel, Legionaries work in pairs. They may never work alone. If one doesn't turn up the assigned work can't be done. One of the central works of the Legion of Mary is to visit homes. In Liverpool the parish priest asked us to do a parish census. This served two purposes. It helped the parish update its list but, more importantly, it was an opportunity for personal contact with parishioners, especially with those who had lapsed.
I remember one particular home that I visited with my assigned partner. The parish index card noted that the family who lived there had become quite bitter towards the Church, why, I didn't know. But I felt nervous when I pressed the doorbell. A man opened the door and one of us said that we were from the Legion of Mary and that we were visiting on behalf of the local parish.
Instead of speaking angry words or slamming the door in our faces, the man gave us a big smile and said, 'O, you're from Ireland!' He then told us of vacations that he and his family had spent there and that they had received a warm welcome wherever they went.
I took this as a cue to speak of the hospitality and friendliness of the Irish people as an expression of their Catholic faith. We had a long chat in which the man who had, as I recall, called his wife to meet us, expressed no bitterness at all towards the Church and it was clear when we were leaving that he was very grateful for the visit. As the Gospel today says: Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace be to this house!” And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him.
I don't know if he and his family went back to the Church but he had experienced a welcoming Church through our visit. In a very real way we had done what Jesus had asked the 72 (or 70) to do: Cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you' The sickness in question wasn't a physical one but a spiritual one.
Our faith is a precious gift from God that must be shared. Otherwise it will die. In the gospel the 72 are given a specific mission. That is what happens on PPC. But we're on mission all the time and we may never know how we lead others to the faith.
The young future martyr Justin learned of Jesus Christ from an old man he met while walking on a beach.
Whether we're 'on duty' as missionaries, as the 72 were and as I was on PPC, or 'off duty' the lives we lead can truly remind others that the kingdom of God has come near to you. The people that the Liverpool family met in Ireland, bus drivers and conductors, waiters, waitresses, newspaper vendors, so many others, probably weren't aware that they were gentle reminders of God's love to them. When we honestly try to follow Jesus despite our sinfulness and weakness we can take heart in the words he spoke to the 72 as they reported what had happened during their mission, rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kyiv, leads Greek Catholic pilgrims from Ukraine in singing the Our Father in St Peter's on 28 June.
Traditional Latin Mass
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-06-2025 if necessary).
GospelLuke 5:1-11 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time: The crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the
word of God. He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by
the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a
little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And
when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let
down your nets for a catch.’ And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night
and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.’ And when they had
done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And
they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man, O Lord.’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the
catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of
Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be
afraid; from now on you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their
boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
The painter Raphael in his Miraculous Draught of Fishes above captures something of the awe of St Peter when he saw how much fish he and his companions had caught, despite their misgivings as experienced fishermen in following the advice of someone they knew to be a carpenter from the mountains of Galilee. St Peter, who had a long way to go in his formation as a follower of Jesus, recognised the utter generosity of God's providence.
The late Columban Fr John Griffin, a New Zealander who worked for many years both in the Philippines and Chile, tells a story about St Alberto Hurtado SJ (1901 - 1952) and his trust in God's providence in A priest, I bless you - Alberto.
Fr Griffin wrote: Fr Hurtado though now canonised, is still known in Chile as Padré Hurtado - just as we still call St Pius of Pietrelcina 'Padre Pio' and St Teresa of Kolkata 'Mother Teresa' - is best known and remembered throughout Chile for his ‘Hogar de Cristo’ (Christ’s Home) Foundation. The seed for this was sown late one night when he was on his way home to San Ignacio. He met a man who was in poor health, had eaten nothing all day and had nowhere to go.
This was the priest’s first encounter with such poverty and it moved him greatly. He did what he could for the man and then asked: ‘What are our Catholics doing for those who have no roof over their heads?’ He began asking this question during his retreats and so was born the idea of ‘Hogar de Cristo’. He formed a board of directors from people eager to help – six men and 30 women. Land was available alongside the Jesuit parish of Jesus the Worker and the first night-shelters were built and an appeal for funds began. By 1945 there were five shelters that had been able to house 12,000 poor men.
Now it was time to do something for the numerous ‘street kids’ who spent their nights under the many bridges over the Mapocho River which runs for miles through Santiago. These youngsters needed educations as well as shelter and land was donated for this purpose a few miles to the north of the city near Colina railway station and a children’s home was built.
It was immediately obvious that such youngsters needed some sort of a trade to make their future secure, so different workshops were built. Fr Hurtado was confronted by another question: ‘How many such homes and workshops are needed up and down Chile to tackle the problem of child vagrancy?’ Something, he said, that should be of concern to all Chileans.
Fr Griffins article continued with a story that for me resembles the experience of St Peter and his companions and their trust in Jesus:
Providence was always on his side. At a meeting one night his board of directors was unwilling, for lack of funds, to approve a new project. In the midst of discussions there was an unexpected call for Fr Hurtado to attend to someone at his front door. He had a brief conversation with the caller who said she wanted to leave a gift to help the great work he was doing.
He gratefully put her envelope in his pocket, wished her a good evening and returned to his meeting. He looked at the contents of the envelope as he sat down. Then he tossed a check onto the table saying, ‘There you are, ye of little faith!’ It was for one million pesos – worth about US$30,000 at that time. I'm sure he spoke to his board with a smile on his face.
Ronnie
Columban Fr Chris Saenz is an American Columban who worked in Chile for many years, initially for two years as a seminarian on First Mission Assignment. On two occasions during that period while assigned to a parish he threw a chronic alcoholic named Ronnie out of the church - Fr Chris is very tall and strong - because he was disrupting Mass. Some years later, now a priest, he visited that parish one Sunday and was astonished to see the same Ronnie as reader at the Mass. In Interview with Ronnie he allows this man to tell the story of the extraordinary change in his life and the part Padré Hurtado played in that.
He was found in a gutter, blind drunk, and taken to a nearby hospital where another Columban priest, Fr Michael Howe, anointed him. The doctor told him that if he took one more drink he would die. Ronnie had a devotion to Padré Hurtado and entrusted himself to God through the saintly Jesuit who had died in 1952 at the age of 51 from pancreatic cancer. Ronnie, whose life since childhood had been one of suffering, never drank again and became involved in his parish and with Hogar de Cristo. Both Fr Hurtado and Ronnie had lost their fathers at a young age.
Ronnie experienced God's providence in being able to attend the canonization of this remarkable saint in 2005. Ronnie told Father Chris: There was a national lottery for Hogar de Cristo to send 36 persons from around the country. There were seven spots for volunteers/workers of Hogar de Cristo and 29 for those who, like me, received aid. Different names were submitted from around the country, including mine and a few others from the Ninth Region. When the first ticket was drawn at the lottery my name was on it. I knew than it was Padré Hurtado’s hand again. In fact, I was the only one from our Region to go.
The party flew to Rome on a military plane with the President of Chile on board.
When San Alberto met a homeless man on his way home one night it changed his life. The homeless man was the expression of God's providence, not only for himself but for Padré Hurtado and for the countless poor people still being served more than 70 years after the saint's death through El Hogar de Cristo. It was God's providence that took Ronnie from the gutters to attending the canonisation of Padré Hurtado in Rome.
It was God's providence in the great catch of fish that changed the lives of Peter and his companions for ever. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Benedict XVI canonized San Alberto on 23 October 2005
'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart.... You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mt 22: 37, 39). This was the programme of life of St Alberto Hurtado, who wished to identify himself with the Lord and to love the poor with this same love. The formation received in the Society of Jesus, strengthened by prayer and adoration of the Eucharist, allowed him to be won over by Christ, being a true contemplative in action. In love and in the total gift of self to God's will, he found strength for the apostolate.
He founded El Hogar de Cristo for the most needy and the homeless, offering them a family atmosphere full of human warmth. In his priestly ministry he was distinguished for his simplicity and availability towards others, being a living image of the Teacher, 'meek and humble of heart'. In his last days, amid the strong pains caused by illness, he still had the strength to repeat: 'I am content, Lord', thus expressing the joy with which he always lived.
San Alberto Hurtado SJ
(1901 - 1952) [Photo from Wikipedia]
Traditional Latin Mass
Fifth Sunday After Epiphany
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-09-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17. Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30.
Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:30; Gospel).
Hilary Cross at her Aunty Joan's grave
Columban Sisters carrying Sister Joan's coffin [Source]
