Anthony J. Berret, S.J.  Funeral Homily Feb 24, 2026   RIP

The Jesuit community is in mourning.   We counted on Tony’s faith and wit to continue engaging us especially those of us in the retirement years.   And I was not surprised to hear that, even the day before his death, our retired brothers with whom he lived in Baltimore at Colombiere were enjoying his company.    We Jesuits and others here now offer our condolences to his family, especially to his niece Elizabeth.   Condolences also to his Sunday worship community, the Villanova Faith and Life Community of which Tony was a loved member, and condolences also to his many colleagues in the broader community of Saint Joseph’s University.   As a Jesuit educator there he inspired so many lives.

There are only a few of us Jesuits standing from the Saint Joseph’s Prep classes of the fifties where I first met Tony.   In particular Tony’s classmates: Joe Lacey who was living with Tony through the last two years or so.   And also classmate Rob Currie, who might be here except for his love for the people of Nicaragua, a country that will not let Jesuits back in should they leave.

Though I am not a direct classmate, I first met Tony when I was a freshman at St. Joseph’s Prep and joined the band, Tony already a trumpet player a year ahead of me and my clarinet.   There were some talented musicians in that class.  We struggled when I was a senior to match the good music of the year before.   And Thirty-five years ago Tony introduced me to his Villanova Faith and Life Community and sometimes I was blessed to join with him in worship or substituted as celebrant when he was otherwise engaged.  I will continue to value those relationships.   All of them loved Tony and many are here with us today.

Tony chose three wonderful readings and a psalm for today’s farewell.  All of them with that rythym of music and poetry that he enjoyed discovering in all of his study of literature.    He is now in that space of celebration that Isaiah describes.      We hear Tony’s voice here encouraging us in the words of Isaiah:   The LORD God will swallow up death forever.
The Lord God will wipe tears from every face;
This is the Lord, let’s be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”

 

And of course, the Psalm chosen reminds us of Tony’s jazz masses.   In the middle of his jazz Mass he would take off his chasuble, pick up his trumpet and join the musicians to make a joyful noise as the Psalm 150 instructs:

Praise God with the blast of the ram’s horn!
Praise God with lute and lyre!
Praise God with drum and dance!
Praise God with strings and pipe!

The second reading from Second Timothy uses some language from competitive sports and military combat.   “I have fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. “  The language, you might think, doesn’t quite fit.   But if you have looked at his 300 page book “Music in the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald” you will find how diligent Tony was in finishing that opus.   There are notations to about 250 song references in Fitzgerald’s literary texts and there is a painstaking bibliography.  He fought a good fight and finished that race. 

He was correctly proud of his ability to capture the attention of students in all of his teachings about modern American literature to capture the attention of students.   He knew that music was always in their ears and so references to music and poetry in texts helped them appreciate novels and short stories.  

Let me refer to just one of the songs that Tony discussed in his book about Music in Fitzgerald’s works.  Among the vast variety of musical references is a passing reference to a song with a particular Catholic theme.   Fitzgerald refers in his popular novel “The Great Gatsby” to a song from 125 years ago called “The Rosary.”  A song called “The Rosary.” Its theme is the enduing power of love even in a time of loss. “I tell each bead until the end on which a cross is hung.”  (repeat)   Tony prints some words of the text and some musical notation in his own work.    But in Fitzgerald’s text one reads simply of hearing the song’s melody in the background, no song text and to the reader, of course, no sound.   But the song’s words and sounds have a meaning to which Fitzgerald eludes with the simple naming of the song.   Tony writes that this song with the beads and then the cross fits its particular context in the novel.  He writes “the song expresses the loss, grief, resignation and sacrifice that Nick applies to Gatsby’s death.”

I think here that Tony reveals his own commitment to telling each bead until the end knowing that all of us must join the Lord in his death.  Yes, 86 years of telling the beads of life.

Each bead..Yes.  We Jesuits remember in the past few years that Tony, while at Manresa Hall, was present each day for Mass.  Well, true he did not arrive in time for the communal recitation of the rosary itself but he was engaged in the celebration of the Lord’s death and resurrection when the telling of the beads came to its end.   And he was always engaged at the Mass   There were times when he would offer an amendment to the homilies the celebrants presented.  One day I praised Jesus’ response to the devil’s temptations in the desert when He declared to the devil, “I will not put the Lord my God to the test.” After Mass Tony reminded me of times before a work of healing when Jesus did something like testing the Father, that is, praying to his Father as he began the healing.  And the Agony in the Garden was at least a question of hesitation.  We might argue about these as tests but Tony was always protective of Jesus’s human nature.

Another example of this:  I remember another time a few of us were discussing Jesus’ disregard for his parents when at 12 years old he quietly remained in the Jerusalem Temple when Mary and Joseph and the rest of their party began their journey back to Nazareth after a  Feast of the Passover.    That thoughtless disregard for his worrying parents suggested to Tony that the child Jesus when younger was quite capable of acting like a typical troublesome kid.   Tony kept the faith but not with all the standard piety.

And finally the gospel, this one also with poetry and song.   And here another testament to the confidence that Tony had in God’s care for him.    I am moved especially with this text because it was one that we shared together at a Manresa Hall Mass.   At that Mass there were remarks indicating some relief and satisfaction that the gospels included experiences of older men and women, people like Simeon and Anna, who were thrilled to hold in their arms the child Jesus.   Yes, we think of the usual disciples, both men and women, as the young who could follow Jesus on foot all over Judea and Galilee.   But what about the older among us and those who struggle to walk, let alone walking distances?   Here Simeon takes our place and sings a kind of song supporting our call to faith:

“Now, master, let your servant go in peace according to your word,
 because my eyes have seen your salvation.
(You prepared this salvation in the presence of all peoples.)
 It’s a light for revelation to the Gentiles
 and a glory for your people Israel.”

And this is Tony’s final gift to us.   We could well spend all day telling of his gifts to individuals and communities.  He now lives in the full light of God’s salvation.   As he filled our ears with song and our eyes with the light of faith, let us hear his song in our ears and may his light shine in us.

 

 

 

 

 February 23, 2026    Second Week of Lent  8-10 inches of snow

SJU First Sun of Lent   Feb 21, 2026

Today we address the gospel reading in which Jesus is tempted in the desert.  Evil powers, false truth cleverly tempt him to abandon any plan for the mission that the Father has asked him to accomplish.

       What about temptations?   “Been there; done that,” we all agreed at the Jesuit breakfast table this morning.  The devil tempts all of us and the reading today confirms that the devil has no shame and tempts even Jesus.  Jesus, for his part, lets us know that there is nothing unusual about being tempted, tempted to be someone other than God calls us to be, or to do something other than what God urges us to do.   We even have early tell-tale experiences.   The great Saint Augustine wrote in his Confessions 1600 years ago about an adolescent experience.  He writes:

"There was a pear tree near our vineyard laden with fruit, though attractive in neither color nor taste. To shake the fruit off the tree and carry off the pears, I and a gang of naughty adolescents set off late at night… We carried off a huge load of pears. But they were not for our feasts but merely to throw to the pigs. Even if we ate a few, nevertheless our pleasure lay in doing what was not allowed."  How does this sound to us?   Our pleasure lay in doing what was not allowed!    

Augustine’s story recalls one of my own.  When I was about 12 yrs old friends Lee and David Newcomb and I needed some dried corn kernels to carry out some no-good Mischief Night scheme and in broad daylight we snuck on to a farming property near our homes to steal some dried ears of corn still on their stalks.  We almost got away with it but the farmer darted out from the farmhouse with a rifle.  The cops got there quickly and the three of us were arrested and kept at the police station for an hour or two until our parents came for us.    It was only later when I read Augustine’s story that I reflected on our prank.  How much pleasure Lee and David and I got out of disrespecting the farmer and thumbing our noses at the cops who made such a big deal out of a few ears of corn.  And still even today: I regret to say that I still enjoy telling this story.  In fact some of you here in this chapel may have heard it before!   Such short-sightedness when I should be thanking God for having parents who could keep me from being locked up.  

We all have such prideful stories of deceit and disrespect.  There is such pride in following our own will and, to top it all off, the devil even insists that we really can get away with it.         

So first the tempted Jesus. We get an exceptional look at the person of Jesus in today’s gospel.  Our usual images of him are rarely of his temptations. The usual images of Jesus present him as suffering on the cross, calming the seas, feeding the five thousand.   Rare in Christian art is the depiction of Jesus being tempted by the devil.  But there is in a nearby church such a depiction in stained glass.  A red-robed Jesus is turning his head heavenward while before him is the figure of the devil with a green-hued donkey-like head.  The devil looks invitingly at Jesus and holds in his boney hands what looks like the whole world.            Think about it: Calming seas, feeding five thousand, suffering for humanity on the cross.  These are not experiences that any one of us is likely to have.  But the experience of temptations.  This is an experience of real everyday life.  This tempted Jesus is one with whom we all can relate.   Here the devil invites Jesus to reject the path that he and his Father had chosen.   Moreover, the scripture readings depict the devil’s suggested path as compelling and reasonable just like the false invitations presented to us. 

And let’s not depict the devil as some kind of donkey-faced, boney-handed freak.   No, the devil that meets with Jesus in the desert is good looking and versed in marketing skills.  The devil fast talks Jesus tempting him to prevent hunger down through the ages with bread made from stones.   What could be wrong with that?  The devil fast talks Jesus tempting him to wow us by throwing himself from the pinnacle, defying gravity and showing control over nature.   Indeed why not wipe out all natural illnesses and disasters?  What a wonderful thing!    The devil fast talks Jesus promising to grant him control of a worldly kingdom, one that could be eternally peaceful.    Nothing wrong with any of this except, except that Jesus recognizes the devil’s world as the destruction of the dignity of the human being.  Jesus knows that we are created to magnify God’s glory with our own free choice to love God and neighbor.  Jesus, thus, answers the devil with words from the mouth of his Father:  I will listen to my Father who will not allow me to so transform the world with gifts of bread and flashiness and automatic peace.  These would strip of its meaning humanity’s free choice of love.  I will not brush aside in my service to you Humanity’s call to the free choice of love.  No, never!   Rather I will announce a Kingdom where all humanity can follow me in the works of love and of saving the world.

In this way Jesus respects and loves our humanity.   Jesus will not pamper us, Jesus will not wow us, Jesus will not control us in his own self-ordered world.   No, Jesus invites us to help him fashion that world in which everyone has the choice to love as he does by loving God and our neighbor.   We bake the bread and feed the hungry children; we heal with love and care those suffering from natural illnesses and disasters; we govern ourselves in our search for peace.  In these ways we glorify the God who created us.

About our own temptations, then!  It helps to look at them solely in the light of our call to follow Jesus.   Our attitude in time of temptation must be a desire to follow the course that Jesus models for us.  We must reject a misuse of material things because Jesus will not misuse Creation.  We must reject the misuse of our skills because Jesus rejects what would be a misuse of his own skills should he choose to make human freedom meaningless.  In this friendship of following Jesus we can be confident.          

Finally we remind ourselves that we are now in the season of Lent, the season that ends with the devil mocking Jesus.  Jesus is rejected and executed.  We, on our part, call ourselves to prayer, to fasting and to acts of charity.  An understanding of the mystery of Jesus and the salvation of the world may elude us.  But we make no mistake following the simple practices of Lent.  These practices are simple and they will show us the way, the way to turn from sin and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. 

The risen Jesus for his part puts the final nail in the devil’s coffin.   This Jesus continues to be among us every hour inspiring faith and hope and leading us even to stand up this Lent and defend the rights of everyone in this country.   These inspirations will one day yield to a full return of his presence.   Praise be Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this cold, grim day, we entertain ourselves with a picture of 
the Barnes Arboretum in the Easter season of 2013.   But first: Lent

ASH WEDNESDAY, 2026   SJU CHAPEL   5 PM  Attendance of approximately 450 students and staff

The word Lent, as many of you know, comes from the same Old English source for the word “lengthen” referring, of course, to the lengthening of days in the spring.   And since here in the northern hemisphere we celebrate Easter in the Spring we also call the penitential season preceding it with a word that reminds us of the lengthening of our days, “Lent”.   Related to this season of longer days, of course, is the new life generated by the renewed warmth of our temperate climate.   New life will be all around us by Easter Sunday, April 5 this year.  On just about that April date, in 2023 I took a beautiful picture of the flowering trees in the Barnes Arboretum on a blue-sky day.   I know it is hard to imagine all this as we snuggle together on this chilly, dreary day but just so it is sometimes difficult to imagine also joining our Jesus in the resurrection.    A desire for our Lenten season, then:  let us get to know this sufffering Jesus who rises from the dead.   Let us ask him to help us serve his desires in our world so that we may live with him.

 

Lent calls us to simplify our lives.   There is nothing complicated about the pratices to which the season calls us: extending our prayers and our acts of charity, and fasting not simply in the traditional way of food consumption but also in other ways; fasting from impatience and gossip, from arrogance and hardheartedness, fasting from skepticism about God’s abundant grace.

 

Now: a little story

Second:  suggestions for prayer and fasting

And Finally:  A particular activity suited to this Lent in 2026

 

My first experience of fasting was not the Lenten fast but the rigorous Eucharistic fast which ended after my childhood years.   During my childhood the Church required that everyone fast from food and even water from midnight to prepare to receive Holy Communion at the morning Mass.   I recall that fast one Easter when I was about eight years old, the first Easter after I had made my First Communion.   With my family I was preparing to leave our home to go to Easter morning Mass.  Breakfast of course would follow after Mass.  But when brushing my teeth I thoughtlessly took a drink of water.    Well, I broke the Eucharistic fast.   No Easter communion for me.   At Mass I sat with my family in the same pew.   They all got up and went to communion and I sat by myself embarrassed thinking that the rest of the congregation considered me a sinner.   I was sure they thought I had done something like beaten my little sister or tried to run away from home.   My parents, later in our lives together, would have counseled me to go to communion anyway but, when I was young, they were careful with rules.

 

Back to, shall we say, the rules of Lent.  And the recommended actions.

We enter Lent with a desire to become a friend of the Lord Jesus and to accompany him as he goes to his death.  Yes, it is a challenge to understand who this man Jesus is and who is the Father that moves him to such love for us.

 

But the instructions for Lent that help us are very simple.

Set aside some time to pray each day.  A sitting prayer.   A walking prayer.  The rosary.   The psalms of the liturgical office.   A song.   The Internet is filled with guidance.   I suggest that you find a practice and stick with it for all of Lent.   My choice will be the gospel readings each day.   Give them each day a thoughtful reading and talk with the Jesus who is present in them.

 

And as far as fasting is concerned, We can surely simplify our diets while maintaining our energy.  But further let’s take some of the time, talent and treasure that we use for ourselves and devote these personal riches to the needs others.   We can make life easier for the family and friends with whom we live or work by taking on some extra duties in the household or by reaching out to a brother or sister in need.

 

These gestures over the forty days of Lent open us to a more complete practice of the gospel day in and day out all year.   Love for and with the poor.  Selling what we have.   Compassion, Humility and even a solidarity with others of all descriptions who work for what is just and peaceful.

 

And in particular this year 2026, a public solidarity.   This Lent in particular Catholics around the nation are responding to the inhuman aggressive efforts by ICE to arrest residents here who are not officially citizens.  The results are families broken up and parents taken from their children.   So many in this country are afraid to live freely according to the rules assigned for those seeking asylum or those offered other special status to enter the country.   In response to this, a nationwide collection of Catholic organizations has declared this Lent and Easter to be a Season of Faithful Witness.    Prayers and processions in public spaces will highlight the crucial need for the country to offer our immigrants pathways to citizenship.    All of us are called to take part in some way.   Even today at noontime some University students with many others took part in an Ash Wednesday faithful witness at the ICE office downtown.   That witness will continue to take place every Wednesday at Noon.

 

But all of us should take heart:   Remember one thing within these practices of Lent: When I was eight years old and hardly knew what I was doing, I was already a member of a family and a congregation and I was called to follow Christ.   So I learned from an early age: we do not follow Christ as individuals.  We follow Christ as a community of disciples, men and women.  We clarify the gospel by studying it together and by practicing it together. 

 

So now together we celebrate the Lord with us around the common shared table of the Eucharist.  We walk together in our desire to follow Jesus, discerning what is right in solidarity, together in our suffering and in our rejoicing.     Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ, King of Endless Glory.

 

Are you walking with me, Jesus, through the icy snow of January 2026?

Homily for Sunday, February 1 based on the Beatitudes in Matthew"s gospel.

There are times in the gospel stories when Jesus offers encouraging words to the men and women who are following him, men like the fishermen, Peter, James and John and women like his mother Mary, and the other women who later were with him at the cross. Today in the gospel we are told that Jesus gathers these close disciples away from the demanding crowds and they sit down where he can address them without interruption. And here he tells them about the search for blessedness and happiness. Happiness is found, he tells them, as the fruit of characteristics like poverty of spirit that are counter to the culture of this world. Jesus names eight paths to this state of beatitude: poverty, mercy, meekness, peacekeeping, sorrow, singleheartedness, search for righteousness and suffering within such a search. He himself follows these paths in his own life. 

 Jesus tells us here how to get closer to him and also how to get closer to others who follow him. His words give us energy to carry on with our lives with a confidence that does not depend on worldly success but on imitating his practice of the beatitudes. The message clearly flies in the face of the characteristics that that are valued by the worldly. And we, too, may find it difficult to consider what the world calls negative experiences like meekness and forgiveness as sources of blessedness and happiness.

 But consider such people who have had such experiences. Many of them have expressed the results of these experiences as a true peace that can make them smile at God’s action in their hearts. Fortunately we have a history in this nation of heroes who became blessed. Think of Rosa Parkes, a religious woman of great dignity who did the very humble thing of offering herself as a symbol. She sat down on that bus in the wrong place and she began a change in the nation’s commitment to public accommodations. And think of our men and women medical professionals who, with nothing but love for others, set up merciful health care in places, even remote places, where children are dying. There is an example of such outreach organized by our own University’s Institute of Clinical Bioethics, an outreach even to the sidewalks of Kensington where men and women caught in addiction need health care. And imagine, too, the wealthy who are poor in spirit, men like Warren Buffet who will give away all of his billions to charity before he dies. And think of those in sorrow whose memory of loved ones moves them to dedicate their lives to the promotion of measures of health and safety that were missing in the lives of their deceased loved ones. An active consolation!

 Let’s consider two points: First: Today many in our country reject the beatitudes. Second: How can we practice them? 

 Today, however, our nation is suffering a particular neglect of the traits of the beatitudes. Yes, over my lifetime our country has grown in its sharing of opportunity and wealth. But among our utter failures has been the lack of concerted effort to regulate our systems of immigration that traditionally provided opportunities for citizenship for millions who seek it. The current reaction to those seeking citizenship is far from a merciful response searching for righteousness and peace. Today most traces of mercy in normative procedures of asylum and temporary protective status have been replaced with the harshest judgments. In this new world filled with fresh punitive practices, the teachings of Jesus are rejected as our nation seeks a false security in behaviors of arrogance and retribution exactly opposed to the practices recommended in the beatitudes. The powerful people behind these practices have a way of gathering a kind of religious following, not of course for a dedication to biblical truth but rather a religious like dedication to opposite characteristics.

 This situation has been brewing for years and politicians of varying persuasions have not addressed it in any adequate way. And now some powerful people hurl abusive language toward the undocumented in an attempt to rob them of their human dignity. Unfortunately there is an audience of citizens eager to accept this abuse as supporting their own thinking. As it turns out, of course, Temple authorities in Jerusalem adopted a similar abusive strategy to get rid of Jesus. They ridiculed Jesus with the false title of “king of the Jews” and mocked him with the crown of thorns. This in preparation for a kangaroo court with false witnesses and mob support so that they could put him to death. 

 Cardinal Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, has spoken out many times in the past year deploring the dehumanizing language that some use when speaking about our immigrants. The Cardinal reminded us of a video posted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) some months ago. It featured agents in tactical gear with a biblical verse from Proverbs 48 appearing on the screen, a verse aimed at depicting agents as the "righteous" pursuing the "wicked". And this is the quote: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” (Proverbs 48). Of course, this ignores the frequent directives in the Old Testament about welcoming the stranger among us. 

 So Finally: How can we practice the beatitudes in the present environment? The truth is that fewer than 5% of the undocumented in the United States are among those who can be described as criminals. Fortunately law-abiding, hard-working immigrant families have abundant friends in their neighborhoods, friends who are willing to step out and defend their rights. Thousands of peaceful citizens are stepping out on the streets of Minneapolis and calling for ICE to leave their city. The peaceful protest is an example of a practice of the beatitudes: a committed humility speaking to power, a sorrow for the fractured families, a seeking of righteousness and peace. Such public protest is a statement defending the undocumented in all of our cities and it is being imitated in a number of ways around the country. 

 Cardinal Cupich is only one of our many Catholic leaders who are confirming the dignity of the human person. In fact, even though the abusive language of the arrogant seeks to rob others of their dignity, our teachings urge us to address even the arrogant themselves with truth. So, yes, even Donald Trump cannot give away his own God-given dignity even when attempting to strip it from others. So we address him and his followers with a plea to be in touch with their own human dignity. Only then can they recognize this dignity in others and confirm such dignity with the manner in which they carry out their duties. 

 We do recognize that Jesus, of course, did not react to civil power in this way. Jesus called King Herod a “fox” and refused to save himself by performing miracles for him. But I think in the current state of our country, the Spirit is assisting us to work miracles in differing ways at various levels of government as we practice the beatitudes. In our present national crisis a nationwide group of Catholics from many dioceses are planning prayer and witness opportunities around the country with a unified national name. This Lent and Easter period has been given a name: “Season of Faithful Witness.” A local group here will be just one of many groups taking part by gathering in public prayer and witness in the support of human life and human dignity. You can find internet info with these words “Season of Faithful Witness.” 

 So let us pray now at this altar witnessing to Jesus Christ who gathers us together with his promises of beatitude and happiness. We especially want to pray with the undocumented meek whom God promises to bless with possessing the earth.

 A new Philly family with freshly-baptized son, Alain Rene

Baptism of Jesus, Jan 11, 2025   Old St. Joseph Church

In my duties at Saint Joseph’s University I rarely have the opportunity to baptize babies.   But the last time I celebrated here at Old Saint Joseph’s, Father Frank asked me to take care of the baptisms on that Sunday afternoon.   I happily did that and was able to pour the water on two babies and one toddler all surprised by the liquid running across their foreheads.    I also quite recently baptized the new-born son of a couple in the process of seeking asylum here in Philadelphia. We certainly welcomed him as a member of the Church and I am hoping that his citizenship in the United States will not be questioned.  

In my own family we have a long standing tradition with a baptismal gown that first was hand sewn by my grandmother and worn by my uncle at his baptism in 1907 and last worn by my grand-nephew Bergen who was baptized 116 years later.  Bergen was the 56^th family baby to be baptized wearing this gown.   

But the gospel read today, of course, engages us in the meaning of baptisms for all the baptized. The word is based on classical Greek and means to dip as in the act of dying a piece of cloth in a solution of colored liquid or even to sink as a boat submerging in water.   The full symbol of Christian baptism includes the dipping of the body into water.   And I actually did this once with the help of her godparents, dipping a baby girl into a tub of water.  She is now about 35 years old and the most delightful person.  But, of course, to baptize in the rite of the Church today it is adequate to pour water on the head or even to sprinkle the head.

In our gospel reading today we feature John the Baptist.   He is a contemporary of Jesus and even known as his cousin.   He preaches not in the towns of Galilee and Judea as Jesus will do but rather he preaches in the desert area along the River Jordan, well east of Jerusalem.  John pleads with the Jews and their leadership to recognize and repent of their hypocrisy.  Jesus as he considers the beginning of his own public ministry confers with John the Baptist and in fact submits himself to the ritual of baptism that John practices, a ritual that John offers as a sign of repentance.   John says, however, to Jesus that, you, Jesus don’t need to repent and have no need of a baptism if repentance.  But for his part John wants to submit himself to the baptism that Jesus can offer.   John tells his own followers that his own baptism with water is different from Jesus’ baptism with water.   And the difference is this:  with John’s baptism the baptized acknowledge their sins and God forgives them in preparation for the judgement of the final days.  But Jesus, when he and then his disciples baptize, transforms the very meaning of baptism.   That is, today’s gospel tells us that when Jesus himself received John’s baptism “he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending.”  In accord with this baptism,  all baptisms in Jesus name confer the Holy Spirit.  Such a baptism accomplishes more than the forgiveness of sins about which John speaks. 

Well, father, what more? you ask.  Two things both important.   First the Spirit welcomes those baptized into the community of Love that is the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit. So yes, Christian baptism, first of all, draws us into the Christian community. And second the Spirit offers us also a set of gifts that assist us in our lives of Community. Let me speak about community and then about these gifts.

Community:  After his own baptism Jesus’s public life unfolds.  He performs his works of preaching and healing, he engages with leaders of synagogue and Temple, he calls his disciples, he heals the sick and even raises the dead.  Baptism unleashes in him a public and community presence.  So it is for all of us baptized.   Baptism initiates in us not only a personal relationship with God but forms us in a community with all the baptized especially, of course, family and godparents.    And forms us, too, with a public mission in imitation of Jesus.   Today even the quasi-legal aspect of baptism, the inscription of the names of the baptized in the church records is a public gesture.   Baptism gives us a place in the People of God with rights to other sacraments especially the right to receive holy communion with all the other baptized. ….and also responsibilities.   The responsibilities of the baptized often run counter to individualistic ways of life that downplay active membership in a Christian community. Of course, God can save those individuals who create their own private ways of worship and service but such an individualistic life is not a fulfillment of baptism.

And the gifts of the Spirit?  We Christians have come to know the Spirit of God as the one who confers and then nourishes within us the seven gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord (that fear understood as awe in the presence of the divine).   These dark days of this winter are filled with news of war and death, of political disarray and anger.  At the beginning of this new year we beg the Spirit to enkindle the gifts of our baptism in our hearts: especially the wisdom to know God’s will for us, the fortitude to speak the truth, and the counsel to find ways of uniting with others in the healing works of justice and mercy.   Always, always with an awesome sense of God’s glory and love for all of us.

Finally quotes from a short sermon related to baptism: we can take baptism for granted and not consider it as both foundational for our faith and also enriching our lives every day.   When I want to remind myself of the power of baptism, I remember a short story written by Flannery O’Connor, a devoted Catholic, who used the eccentricities of Southern Bible Belt Christians to startle us sedate Catholics with some unusual imagery.

We skip over the full story which Flannery titles “The River”.  But I read the words about baptism spoken by a preacher in the story, a preacher with a reputation as a healer. He speaks at a revival down at a river’s edge somewhere in one of our southern states.  Imagine the scene: The preacher stands knee deep in the slow flowing river along the shore and preaches to the congregation gathered on the beach.

In a twangy voice: “Maybe I know why you come, maybe I don’t.   If you ain’t come for Jesus, you ain’t come for me.  If you come to be healed by a baptism of river water and to leave your pain in the river, You ain’t come for Jesus.  You can’t leave your pain in the river.  You might as well go home if that’s what you come for.   Listen, people!  There ain’t but one river and that’s the River of Life, made out of Jesus’s blood. That’s the River that you have to lay your pain in, in the River of Jesus’s Blood.  In the River of Faith, in the River of Life, in the River of Love!   If you believe, you can lay your pain in that River and get rid of it….”

So the preacher standing in the current of fresh river water reminds us that the power of the grace of baptism by water has its source in another current, a current of blood, a river of the blood of Jesus.  This Jesus, a person with a divine nature, takes on also a human nature, takes on bloody human flesh and suffers bodily torture.   And when we believe, His bloody River washes away the pains of sin and the pains of body and soul.  In this one River of Christ’s Love for us we share all our joys and all our pains.   In this one River Christ gathers all of his sons and daughters together in mercy. 

O’Connor’s story with this image of a river of Christ’s blood startles us.  But we acknowledge, too: Christ’s own river of blood is the source of all the graces of baptism in the fresh waters of creation, the source of our community, the source of the gifts of the Spirit. 

 Lee Casaccio gave a copy of this art piece entitled "The Walk Home" 

On this Feast of Epiphany I think of the three as the Kings of Matthew's gospel led by the light into the presence of the Christ at his birth.   There follows here my homily to celebrate the day.

EPIPHANY   SJU Chapel  at 11 AM 2025 

 

The gospel writers Matthew and Luke, want to be sure we understand that the birth of Jesus, Our God in human flesh, has changed the very course of history.   In the gospel of Luke, angels reveal this to the shepherds and they recount what they had seen and heard about the child and “all who heard were astonished.”  Then Matthew goes further and introduces the Three Kings who journey from far away Kingdoms.  They find the new-born Child Jesus and worship Him as a Child King, as the New and Blessed Ruler over all.  These kings fulfill prophecies such as the one in Isaiah in our first reading today.    Isaiah predicts some extraordinary person who will come to lead Israel.  This person will attract world leaders to do him homage.  Isaiah writes: “kings are coming to your dawning brightness” and   “everyone in Sheba will come bringing gold and incense.”

So yes, angels, shepherds, wise men visit the newborn and his parents.   And
Jesuit-founder St. Ignatius of Loyola in his own imagination enhances the birth of Jesus in his personal prayer.  He considers that Joseph and the pregnant Mary on their journey to Bethlehem are accompanied also with “a maidservant leading an ox.”   And after Jesus is born in the stable, Ignatius uses his own imagination to pray in this way: “I behave myself as a poor and unworthy little servant, looking at father, mother and child and ministering to their necessities.”   In imitation of such imagination I recently read a contemporary description of ordinary persons paying attention to this family’s needs.  That is, a description of some more visitors who come after the three wise men had presented their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and left the scene.   At that point into the stable to take their place walk three wiser women bearing their more practical gifts for Mary: diapers and casseroles for the week.

But, of course, back to the wise kings: we have no objective historic record of them and their extraordinary journey.    The first Christians came to know, however, as part of the experience of Jesus’ resurrection that his birth is to be celebrated because he is the one bringing wisdom and understanding to the whole world, Jew and Gentile.   The wise men are seekers of such wisdom traveling from a Gentile kingdom.  They travel from that part of the world that had often threatened the survival of the Jewish people.    The principal revelation in this scripture story?   God comes as a Jew to bring salvation not only to the Jews but also to Gentiles in a fulfillment of Jewish prophecy.

 

Two other points: First the contrast of power and wealth against the simplicity in this birth and finally our opportunity to protect children as the Kings protected Jesus.

 

Matthew’s story is inspiration for artists who welcome the clashing symbols of Royalty arriving at the stable.   The kings find there a baby born to parents who are nobodies.    This is the ultimate upper class-lower class drama.   Artistic illustrations of this event down through the centuries have gone out of their way to magnify the contrast.    The kings are clad in ermine and gold.    The kings have attendants holding their flowing garments, calming the camels draped in color and tending to the gifts the kings will present to the baby.   Jesus and his parents have a poorly clad farm hand tending to the simple farm animals.   The child lies in swaddling clothes on a straw bed.   The baby quietly glows in light while mother and father fix their gazes on him. The kings bend down and kiss the baby’s feet.   The artistic organization of image and light focuses solely on the little child.   The powers of the world bow to the wonder of the child. 

When we today see such a picture and hear this story we recall our own experiences of holding a very young baby, an experience that fills us with wonder, the baby’s eyes alight with hope and promise.    

The event as Matthew presents it clearly expresses the enthusiasm of the Christians for whom he writes.   He does not write exclusively for the powerful Romans or for the guardians of the Jewish Temple or the Torah.  He writes to express the fresh dignity that embraces everyone in every state of life.  His word and images express even among the kings a passing willingness to sacrifice their own kingdoms to enter the new kingdom of this child.

How can we join in the wonder that the three kings experience?   In some fleeting way they sense that they have found a new and lasting king.    Well, what is their first response?   They defend the child by their refusal to share their knowledge with that despot, King Herod, who surely would have killed this baby whom the three kings identify as the one who will overthrow all kings.  They defend human dignity by refusing to play by the rules of King Herod.   They risk his ire by sneaking away without telling him that they have found the child who is said to threaten his power. 

How can we share in their careful defense of the child?    Most of us are blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who welcome the birth of children and love them.   Babies before us beckon us, even urge us, to the work of defending life starting at a very early point in the womb and to make available whatever a pregnant woman needs to help her bear and raise her child. 

In a culture where abortion is so common, the Sisters of Life here in Philadelphia have a broad mission assisting struggling women to bear and care for their children.   I quote from one of the sisters’ presentations:  “There are a lot of people who are hurting, and we need to heal.   That healing can come from pro-life ministers, who can be the first ones to tell a scared pregnant woman that they matter and that someone is there for them.  Important it is, too, to offer the same message to a mother or father of an aborted baby that they, too, matter and are loved.”

Recently I had the privilege of baptizing the new-born son of immigrants who are seeking asylum.   The parents, because of the fresh ire aimed at immigrants without papers, have some financial struggles and the wise Sisters of Life are the ones helping them with the diapers and other things for this child.    

Further we ask the Spirit of God to lead us to be courageous in defending defenseless children who are threatened in so many ways.     Think of the threat of childhood hunger and disease in so many countries where power-hungry modern Herods value power and greed over the common good.   The World Health Organization in its review of mortality rates among children testifies to what is  happening now as 2026 dawns:  for the first time since 2000, the steady decline in child mortality rates has stalled or reversed.  

This situation is occurring not simply because children’s lives are lost directly in acts of war but more so because wars are disrupting food distribution and are causing millions of children to fall into malnutrition even at the same time as needed healthcare structures are destroyed.   If we in this country had as much commitment to feeding the hungry children of this world as we do to controlling oil reserves such as those in Venezuela, so many childrens’ lives would be saved, even millions over the years ahead.

Our own responsibilities to protect human life begin of course right at home among our families and friends, our neighborhoods and our workplaces.     None of us are kings or queens.   But all of us have the power of our own lives.   We witness to the truth by what we do and what we proclaim within the circles of life around us.   

Just as God helped the Wise Men to see and defend the Child Jesus, may God continue to inspire us in our care for the born and unborn, for all the children who can bring hope into the next generations.

 

 

 

 

St. Joseph's University campus, Sunday, December 14, 2025

Christmas Day  Medical Mission Sisters 2025

                     “The Word of God has taken on flesh and pitched his tent among us.”

        Over the past ten years I have preached at some Christmas Masses  within the retirement communities of the Jesuits but my last Christmas Mass celebrated outside the Jesuit community was at the Federal Prison not so far away near Pottsville PA in 2016.   There was no music and no Christmas décor at that prison Mass for about thirty men.   They heard in the homily that Jesus, too, was arrested and they heard my favorite prayer…that of the Good Thief: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”   Several of the men greeted me with Christmas wishes after the Mass.   Two or three had attended parochial schools in Philadelphia.  The Philly Catholic culture even in prison.                      

            I wanted at that prison Mass to sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ because not many years earlier I had heard the confession of a troubled guy who weeks later wrote me a Christmas card with a note about that carol.   He was touched by the fourth phrase in the opening verse.  (Sing the four phrases):   “Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.  Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”  The card writer had a Christmas experience.

         Of course the scene here today is quite different from that prison.   The decorations, the music, and a congregation of free people who so often choose to be men and women for and with others.

First: An experience or two

Second: Voices from the Holy Land today

Third:  What we need to hear time and again

      But for us Christmas keeps coming again and again….and again.   There is sometimes a danger that we get used to it.   When that happens to me I repeat the lesson I learned years ago in a grocery store parking lot.  It was a few days before Christmas and I was making one of those weekly trips to stock the pantry at our North Philly Jesuit community.   I had a number of bags in a shopping cart.   As I pushed the cart to the trunk of my car, a young teenager suddenly appeared before me.   He volunteered help with the grocery bags.    I was preoccupied and shrugged my shoulders saying, “Oh, I can take care of this.”   He looked at me as if I was out of my mind and said, “Mister, it’s Christmas!” and certainly restrained himself from adding: “What the hell is the matter with you?”    But he had me in his bullseye and of course he put the bags in the trunk and I gave him a couple of bucks.   But every year when I am feeling like “here we go again.” I remind myself “Mister, it’s Christmas.  

        Of course, there are many more reminders about the season in our everyday lives.  Just a few months ago I enjoyed a somewhat infrequent event in my family, holding a new-born baby in my arms, a great grandniece.  Holding a family member was a treat for me.   I heard Mary’s words:  “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit leaps for joy in God my savior.”   A little girl is Hope itself according the poet Charles Peguy (Pee-gee), a point that Pope Francis made frequently in his own writings.   And this particular baby girl I held is the most recent of those younger than I whose names got written on our family tree…In fact she is number 45 among those born or married into the family.    Whatever the number of persons might be for any one   of us in our families or among our friends from within congregations and neighborhoods and schools…. we leap for joy in God our Saviour.

      In this time of year, too, even in the tense and troubled parts of the world hope takes voice.   In Jerusaleman ecumenical group of Christians called “A Jerusalem Voice for Justice” has been speaking out on behalf of those suffering in Gaza and on the West Bank.  I read here from their Christmas message heralding the presence of Mary and Joseph and Jesus in their suffering country.   And I quote:      “We ask ourselves: How can we celebrate? Yet, celebrate we must!   We might indeed be powerless in the face of Israeli intransigence, which prevents life from entering Gaza, (and prevents) law enforcement in the West Bank. However, the message from Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem is that equality must come, injustice must end and light must triumph. Our Christmas celebration proclaims a message of life in the face of death and darkness.”

        So we hear on Christmas Day these voices from Jerusalem supporting the powerless.   Yes, we join them in their prayers.  And we join also with Jewish voices in our own country questioning the policies of their cherished Israel.   The Jewish Voice for Peace, with many offices in cities of the United States echoes what we just read from the Jerusalem Voice for Justice.    I quote from the executive director of the Jewish Voice for Peace who recently published this Hanukkah message.               “Hanukkah invites us to use the flames of the Hanukkah candles to inspire sacred solidarity. … Tonight, as I light my menorah I am doing so as an act of defiance — a rejection of supremacy, domination and death. A rejection of both antisemitism and its brutal weaponization against Palestinians. Let us rededicate to doing everything in our power to end the genocide of Palestinians, and build a Judaism rooted in collective liberation and safety for all.”

     In our celebration here today let the hope both of those who stand with the suffering and also of those who suffer, let their hope be a light that inspires us.   We remember Mary, the Mother of God.    She magnifies the Lord who “has brought down monarchs from their thrones but the humble have been lifted high.”

     And when despair or anger threatens to overwhelm our human spirits, we can remind ourselves of the words of Christian Wiman, the poet.  “If the last believer were to let go of their faith and Christianity disappeared, Christ would still appear in the world as calmly and casually as he appeared to the disciples walking to Emmaus after his death".  

     So This Christmas Jesus comes before us to address our need for hope.    With more warmth in his voice than my parking lot prompter he announces “Mister, It’s Christmas” or, where appropriate “Excuse me, Ma’am, it’s, Hanukkah”.   Or “Brothers and Sisters, it’s Ramadan.”                                                                           

     “The Word of God has taken on flesh and pitched his tent among us.