November 15, 2022 at 4:19 p.m.
Our faith prevails: Time to give thanks
Our faith prevails: Time to give thanks
Most all of us have been there at one time or another and, in recent months, with so much economic, political and global uncertainty, many are on the verge of panic. At points in my own life that was certainly an option. A surprise call from the Apostolic Nunzio on Feb. 3, 2014, informing me Pope Francis appointed me Bishop of Albany, put a shock mark on my curriculum vitae chart. I never desired or expected this. I don’t know what I feared more: the consequences of saying “yes” or of saying “no.” I don’t remember if I was even offered an option. “Fear is useless, it is faith that counts” is what Jesus tells us and so I told myself. I folded my fears into my favorite prayer, the Divine Mercy message entrusted to St. Faustina Kowalska, “Lord Jesus, I trust in you.” This is the only sure way I knew to face a future uncertain, the only way I could lead with certainty. It remains for me the path to peace. I am confident it can sustain a family, a parish — and at least one diocese as well. But another one? I would learn soon enough.
Barely a week before the 2019 ad limina visit to the Holy See (and the death of my mother that Nov. 6), an invitation to administer a troubled diocese was, to say the least, rattling. Not to mention an inconvenient case of a “weird virus” (as symptoms were described on my chart after five days in hospital before COVID was identified or even suspected in the USA), which I doubtless picked up in Italy. The bout brought on a month’s malaise that had me pondering how to rise with sufficient energy to the pastoral needs of the people of this second diocese and, more immediately, to the expectations of Buffalo’s tough press corps on Dec. 5. So, I made my favorite prayer my refuge from a flight to fear: “Lord Jesus, I trust in you.” And whose name is better to invoke than St. Joseph, patron of the Diocese of Buffalo, and the great protector of Mary and her divine Son, even through exile. Speaking of exile, enter pandemic.
We all faced the challenges of the COVID years. The losses and the lockdowns. Our elders and young ones alike. We did our best to keep our schools and churches open, sometimes only virtually. We faced separation and experienced Eucharistic longing almost to the breaking point. We prayed and we trusted in the intercession of the Immaculate Conception and we renewed our consecration to her and to the Divine Mercy. Our faith was tested. Faith prevailed.
On Oct. 8 last year, while on a pilgrimage to Mexico City, I learned I would be facing cancer surgery. In all my personal challenges, the only free choice I had was to flee, not into fear, but into the arms of God’s mercy. In Mexico, by God’s providence, my refuge was to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I renewed my entrustment to the Immaculate Conception, who is also the patroness of our Diocese of Albany. Faith was tested and faith prevailed.
Recently, a friend of mine shared a heartache about a parent in a state of depression. It dawned on me that the parent, while baptized and raised in the faith and not known to be averse to prayer, was not in the practice. What I could offer, remembering my own experience, was to encourage a complete trust in God: “Lord Jesus, I trust in you.” Control in life is overrated. So many things we think we can control turn out to be illusions and delusions. I have no desire to add to anyone’s anxiety by listing them. They run the gamut of our experiences with health, money, occupation, status and relationships. All can change in the blink of the eye.
Even friendships can run aground with the passage of time. Do I sound like old man Qoheleth — he of the “vanity of vanities?” That is not my intent. I am in no state of despondency, nor do I wish to lead anyone there. As I bear witness to the above, I can say here: I have never been happier in my life as a priest, as a human being. I am grateful to God and the good people God has brought into my life and to serve. I want only to give as I have received. I only regret that my desire to share so exceeds my ability to be present to all with the joy and hope in my heart. All I want — more than anything else — is to shout and proclaim how good and faithful God is, in fact the only one who can give us the peace and security we all seek.
God is real. God lives in the present. God is personally and lovingly involved in each of our lives. If only we could keep bearing that good news to one another. That is the essence of evangelization and it is something to be thankful for if we can receive it thankfully and give it, regardless of how many obstacles life throws our way from day to day as we struggle with our personal issues and challenges.
On my pilgrimages to the dump in Mexico City, as I have shared before, the “Hope of the Poor” mission revealed to us pilgrims how people who have virtually nothing but their lives, their families and the garbage they sort just to keep alive are human beings of astounding depth, courage and with great faith and perseverance. The adage I heard as a child — “I complained about not having shoes until I met the boy who had no feet” — comes to mind in many ways. The gift of pure water most of us drink and bathe in daily, which so many of our human brothers and sisters lack, also gives one pause and a reason to give thanks.
No time like now to count our blessings. Many surround us but barely touch our hearts. We all know the parable of the prodigal sower — the farmer who wastefully scatters seed even where it is likely never to grow — and how generous God is with grace in our lives. It is perfectly okay to kvetch from time to time, to God who puts up with our complaints and grievances. Some people just seem to have more than the trials and setbacks any human being can reasonably be expected to bear. The Scriptures abound in such stories, notably the Book of Job, the trials of the Maccabees, and the entire history of the wanderings and sojourns of God’s chosen people in the deserts and slave camps of their march through time. Jesus himself met much resistance to his teachings about mercy and forgiveness. His compassion toward those in the margins spurred resentment from the religious and political power brokers. Even family and friends misunderstood and abandoned him. His own town people discounted reports of his miraculous works and teaching. Isn’t this just Jesus, the carpenter’s son? We know him. And in the end: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
At Thanksgiving, we can all take time to see and acknowledge the action of God’s grace through events in our lives which at first might be taken as disappointments, defeats or setbacks. These things can and do test our faith. Fear is useless. Faith prevails. For that we give thanks.
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