Thursday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
Votive Mass of Blessed Michael McGivney
Knights of Columbus State Chaplains
Immaculate Conception Church, Terryville, CT
June 8, 2023
Walking in the Footsteps of Blessed Michael McGivney
Today we find ourselves walking in the footsteps of Blessed Michael McGivney. We made our way here to Terryville, a mission of St. Thomas Church in Thomaston, where Blessed Michael served as Pastor… not unlike busy pastors today who serve more than one congregation. Later, we will make our way to St. Thomas Church in Thomaston. Unlike this structure, it is a new church, not the one in which Blessed Michael ministered– but even if there is not a continuity of buildings, there is a continuity of spirit. Afterwards, we will travel to the Thomaston Opera House, an original structure, where Blessed Michael staged parish plays, just as he had done in New Haven. Lastly, we will make our way to the McGivney family plot at Old St. Joseph Cemetery, and this on the 150th anniversary of the death of Fr. McGivney’s Father.
So we are walking in Blessed Michael’s footsteps, but not just physically; but spiritually. For in a sense, we, as Chaplains, are successors of Blessed Michael. We are not unlike bishops who are successors to the Apostles. We do not succeed them as witnesses to the Resurrection, for while many of us are aging rapidly, most of us are not quite that old. But we do succeed them in high priesthood and in the three-fold munera. So too, as Chaplains, none of us can claim the distinction of being the Founder, and none of us was present at the beginning of the Knights of Columbus. But all of us can lay claim to Blessed Michael’s spiritual and pastoral heritage, a living legacy which, in the spirit of holiness, he has bequeathed to us and to our brother knights and to their wives and families. So we do well to walk in the footsteps of our holy founder for whose canonization we should pray each day.
The Law of Love: Loving God Above All
As those who preach homilies, not just on Sundays but also weekdays, we know that the daily readings can sometimes present a homiletic challenge. But today is not one of those days; today’s readings seem tailor-made for. You, of course, can withhold your judgment on whether I seized the oppourtunity they present until after I am finished!
Let’s begin with the Gospel where Jesus lays out for us the law of love, a Gospel passage which is foundational to our first principle of charity. To grasp this Gospel passage, we need to take note of the extreme legalism that prevailed at the time of Jesus’ coming into the world. The Scribes and Pharisees had made the Torah, not a source of life and hope, but a heavy burden consisting of 613 rules and regulations to be followed. Their yoke was difficult and their burden was heavy.
But Jesus transformed the Law, not merely because his scholarship was better, but rather because he was and is the very Word of God in the flesh, the only One who eternally and fully reflects the loving heart of God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we celebrated last Sunday, it was the unity of Jesus Christ that revealed the love of the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit. When, therefore, Jesus speaks us, heart to heart, about love, we should pray that his words soak into our souls like rain into parched earth.
For we live in a world of legalisms new and old. Ideology produces legalism, suffocating strictures of every kind, wrongly limiting what one can say or not say, do or not do. This is not to say that there is no place for legitimate norms and rules, it is only to say that in loving God with our whole being, we are set free, as St. Paul would tell us set free, in such a thorough way that keeping all the commandments is but a response to a prior love, the love of the Triune God who loves us like no other. Once we are surprised and overtaken by God’s love, and it registers in our heart of hearts – then loving God above all becomes, not a law, but a joy and a holy quest, as we strive in his grace to remove the barriers in our lives that prevent us unconditionally from loving without conditions that One who loves us with infinitely and with utter generosity of heart. When love dawns us in this way, then like Blessed Michael, then our whole life, our priesthood, our ministry becomes ‘a living sacrifice of praise.’
The Law of Love: Loving One’s Neighbor as Oneself
Our first principle of Charity is firmly rooted in the love God has for us and the response to that love which the grace of the Holy Spirit makes possible. As St. Paul says in Romans (5:5), “the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” and it is that overflowing love that enables us to love both God and neighbor, and to see the profound link between loving God and loving one’s neighbor. For, as St. John teaches, “If anyone says, ‘I love God’ but hates his brother is a liar, for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen’ (1 Jn 4:20). Blessed Michael understood this profoundly and so he made charity, love for the poor, the downtrodden, and the dispossessed the very first principle of the Order – knowing that this is what gives God glory, knowing that this is what will be asked of us on judgment day. If we would succeed Blessed Michael, we chaplains must be apostles of love.
Married Love in the Book of Tobit
A privileged way of loving God and neighbor is the vocation of marriage and family, and no one understood that better than Blessed Michael McGivney, He sought to help his Knights be better men and better Catholics – and therefore to be better husbands and fathers. He knew that the mutual love of the Trinity must be at the heart of the home, that family members must defer to one another out of love, and serve the other members. He knew the love at the heart of the family circle must overflow onto the wider community.
As we listened to the story of the betrothal of Tobiah and Sarah, and as took to heart Tobiah’s prayer on their wedding night, perhaps as priests and chaplains we heard an echo of the strivings of so many married couples to live their vocation faithfully & fruitfully. Perhaps we also heard the pain of couples who do not know where to turn to find peace and joy. As successors to Blessed Michael, our pastoral charity must extend to all such couples, just as Blessed Michael knew, loved, and accompanied the families of his parishes. And let us strive to help these couples with all the resources our Order provides.
Conclusion
So let us continue our pilgrimage today and through the intercession of Blessed Michael, may our time together produce the good fruit of the Gospel for our jurisdictions, councils, and fellow chaplains. Thank you for your service and may God bless us and keep us always in his love! Vivat Jesus!