Living Worthy of Our Calling, 29th Friday (II), October 21, 2022

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Friday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of Blessed Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi, Martyr
October 21, 2022
Eph 4:1-6, Ps 24, Lk 12:54-59

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today we shift gears in our biennial two-week liturgical meditation on St. Paul’s deepest and most eloquent Epistle. Since a week ago yesterday, St. Paul has been sketching out in the first three chapters of the Letter the theology of Christ’s whole mission, which can be summarized as his work to “sum up,” to reconcile “all things in himself, in the heavens and on earth.” In the last three chapters of his missive, he begins to draw moral consequences for how we’re supposed to participate in that reconciliation between us and God and in God with each other. God’s ultimate plan in Christ is to form us as a family, as a true communion of saints. In today’s passage, St. Paul pushes on that accelerator.
• He urges us to “live in a manner worthy of the call [we] have received,” the call to be — as he said last week — “holy and immaculate in [God’s] sight” and describes the virtues we need to respond to his call for reconciliation: first, humility, because pride always separates us from God and from others; second, meekness, so that we will have the self-discipline to control our anger and choose the good; and third, patience (makrothumia) so that we can “bear with one another through love.” These are the means by which we can “preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Then St. Paul sketches what I might call the theological grounds of our unity: that in Christ we have been made “one Body.” We have become temples of the “one Spirit.” We all have the “one hope of our call” to eternal communion with God and others. We are all disciples of the “one Lord.” We each have the “one faith” or trust in God and his promises. We have the “one baptism” that has made us spiritual siblings. We all recognize our divine filiation of the “one God and Father of all,” who is over all (omnipotent), through all (provident) and in all (omnipresent). God who calls us to live in a manner worthy of our calling to be in a loving communion with him and others will give us all of the means we need — and these are the means! And these means are not merely individual; as we prayed in the Psalm, we are a “people that longs to see [God’s] face.”
• In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks about the signs of the times. Just as we are able to interpret meteorological indicators and adapt our clothing and associated behavior, so Jesus wants us to perceive the signs of his kingdom and make similar adjustments to live in accordance with his calling to that kingdom, a kingdom of unity, holiness, charity and peace. He gives the analogy of making peace with adversaries before the judge sentences us to prison, communicating that as we’re walking through life toward our judgment, we should reconcile now, we should love now in deeds. This is a mystery hidden to the wise and the clever of the world, as we prayed in the Alleluia versicle but revealed to the childlike, who forgive easily. God who wants to reconcile all things in Christ wants us to reconcile whenever we see to settle something with a brother or sister who shares with us the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace and the one Body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism and God and Father of all. The pilgrimage of life is meant to be a kairos of mercy received and shared and we need to reconcile with God and others along the way.
• Today we have a great example of someone who read the signs of the times, lived in a manner worthy of his Christian calling, and sought in the most challenging of circumstances to help others to live in the same way. St. Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi was a pastor in Palermo, Sicily who pushed and pulled his people in a mafia-dominated neighborhood to live according to their baptism. There’s great meaning to the fact that his feast day is not on the day he died but on the day he was baptized, since he himself sought to live in a manner worthy of his baptism. Fighting the immorality of the mafia brought him many enemies among his neighbors, parishioners and even the Church hierarchy. One Cardinal of Palermo, Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini, once even infamously asked when queried about the mafia whether it was a brand of detergent. Such hypocrisy led him to criticize the Church, but in a holy way, “like a mother,” he quipped, “not a mother-in-law.” With little support, he tried to change the mentality of his parishioners, conditioned by omertà, or a shamed silence, to give leads to authorities about the crimes of the Mafia. He refused their money for the Church and would not allow mafia members in his processions. On Sept. 15, 1993, the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows and his 56th birthday, he was shot outside his rectory, a hit ordered by the local mafia bosses Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano. One of the hitmen later confessed and said what were Don Puglisi’s final words, “I’ve been expecting you.” His murder shocked Italy. Pope John Paul II eventually traveled there the following year and called him a “courageous exponent of the Gospel.” Pope Benedict decreed his martyrdom and Pope Francis authorized his beatification in May 2013, calling him, “an exemplary priest and martyr.” He had a famous saying, now inscribed on various walls and posters in Palermo and elsewhere, “Se ognuno fa qualcosa, allora si può fare molto,” which means, “If everyone does something, then much can be done.” If someone lives in a manner worthy of his calling, it can inspire many others to do so. He did and his life inspires still. He sought to get the mafia and its defenders to settle with their opponents now before they would be thrown into eternal carceration. He read the signs of the times and recognized that the time was now.
• During the Last Supper, Jesus prayed to his Father that our relationships with each other will be as united as the bond between the Father and the Son. To live in a manner worthy of our calling means to seek to live in this type of loving communion. And to strengthen us Jesus gives us himself so that we might be united to each through, with and in Him, and he sends the Holy Spirit to make us “one Body, one Spirit in Christ.” Following the courageous example of Blessed Pino, let us “strive to preserve the unity” that he gives us here — and grow it!

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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