In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Today, we are celebrating the feast of Saint Charles Baromeo, the cardinal archbishop of Milan, who died shortly after the Council of Trent, sixteenth century, died about 1571, something like that. The council was over in sixty three, fifteen sixty three. Now, when you this may may nothing to most of you, Charles Borromeo. But that man touched my life like Pius the tenth and a few other important people.
I hope they're not too dissatisfied with some of the consequences. But when I decided to be that I might wanna be a priest, the first thing that occurred to me was to do it the right way, and that was to go to a college that was specifically, uniquely designed to transform men into priests. It was the what we call the small or petite seminary. Now the the existence of this concept, that is that there should be a special kind of education for the holy priesthood, that is largely the consequence of Charles Barrow Mail following the Council of Trent. Things you know that some of us take so much for granted shouldn't be taken for granted at all.
Even to this day in parts of Europe, they did not have what we call a seminary administration or organization for the education of priests. And, of course, in this country, we've reverted to that, which shows great progress, of course. But following the council of Trent, this young man, remember Charles Barrow Mayo, was made a cardinal when he was 12 years old. He was made an administrator of an abbacy even before that. He was his uncle became Pius IV.
He was a Medici. His mother was a Medici. So Charles Barro Mayo had it made. He was very active in the Council of Trent. He was not yet ordained, although he was a cardinal.
He was the administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan long before, relatively speaking, before he was ordained a priest. This will give you some idea of the way things were in those days. He died he was only 40 I think 46 years old when he died. But what that man accomplished, Trent changed his life. See, he was a Medici.
His uncle became the pope. He immediately at the age of 21, he brought him he brought Charles right down to Rome to be his right hand man. And here's this boy. Today, you know, we'd almost call him a youngster if you're talking about juvenile crime. Here he is brought down to Rome to be the right hand man of his uncle.
He was a great power behind the Council of Trent, and probably more than any other single person, he translated the Council of Trent into action to bring it down to changing the church in the face of the of the reformation, which, of course, was was was sweeping over the whole of of Europe. Remember, this is the sixteenth century, the century of reformation. Now the Council of of Trent and the death of his brother changed Charles' outlook on life. So instead of pursuing what would been a very prestigious and important career attached to the papacy, he went back he had been ordained at the age of 25. He went back to Milan and became resident there and never left it until he died.
Now as the as the cardinal archbishop of Milan, you it's very you you can't possibly summarize that man's life. He did all the right things. Just he emphasizes the teaching of catechism, bringing the truth of religion. Action follows thought. Action follows truth, not the reverse.
You don't get truth from experience. Experience life should be a product of of truth. He was he was insisted upon his priests preaching. He founded all kinds of hospitals. For example, he founded a special refuge for deserted and abandoned and beaten up wives.
This is the sixteenth century, mind you know. He was very social minded as we would say today, but that man didn't lose himself in what we call the welfare state. He never mistook doing good for for bringing the church of Jesus Christ into the luminosity of Christ's truth and teaching. I remind you again, this is the sixteenth century when you were having these tremendous conflicts over the teaching of Christ. Faith in good works, purgatory, the mass.
What is the mass? Is it a memorial sacrifice? Is it the real presence? These were the things that were men were fighting about. And here, this young man, he's he's only when he goes back to Milan, he's only 25.
He goes back there to be the archbishop. He tries to to bring the reformation of Trent into the religious orders. Now he he he did what he could to revise the liturgy, to put the liturgy on a good solid basis. He was interested in music. You name it, and he was in it.
And what was the reception that this man got? Two attempts to murder him and one of them by religious order. That's how he was treated. So let's keep our let's keep our perspective about these tranquil ages and when the peace, you know, and all this sort of thing we think about. And actually, the the second attempt nearly did it.
He was wounded. Now the the the influence, the significance, the what this man did for the church is beyond description, and it's still with us. We his ideas of education may not be what people think they ought to be today, and maybe and maybe they're right. But I don't think anybody can quarrel with the thesis that a man who or a boy who decides to be a priest ought to get a special kind of education for that particular field, and he ought to be as well educated as most laymen. We're not doing that today.
So maybe we need another Charles Barra Mayer to bring things back a bit. Now there are men and women today who realize this, that we have the pendulum has swung far too much off off the center, that we need to face up to some facts of life. We can learn from experience, or some of us can. Sometimes all we need is to get our hand burned once in a gas burner to know that a gas burner burns. Some people have to do it several times.
Some people never learn and they lose a hand. And so today, as we celebrate this great man, because he and he died at 46. He wrote he wrote tremendously. Well, how he managed to do all that he did is beyond comprehension. When the plague hit Milan, he was the first in the streets himself to try to take care of the plague stricken.
It was even the the plague came to be called by his name, the Charles plague. So what can you say about a man like that? He's made a saint. Well, yes. That means he practiced virtue heroically.
Well, yes. A lot of saints have done it. Well, the martyrology is this thick. But there are differences among saints. And this man, Charles Baromeo of Milan, has an careful about world.
So have have have about folks. Much of this confusion is the product of the the media. Fact In much of what is said in the way that the church has changed since Vatican two, it is not true. Not in the sense that the Vatican changed it. Much of what is said about the confusion today is, I say, the consequence of the way the media handle things and of some intemperate or otherwise disorganized theologians.
The church hasn't changed all that much. Not if you go to the church, but let us not in the least be be there's a book just come out, as you know, predicting that the the the the Roman church is gonna fold up in no time. Well, folks, that has been predicted so often that it's ad nausea. There's nothing to be worried about, you know, if you believe in Jesus Christ. He said, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
But he didn't say it wouldn't be tossed around, that there wouldn't be confusion and turmoil, that there wouldn't be turbulence. Oh, no. Christ never said that. Matter of fact, he said quite the reverse. I have come, he said, to bring the sword and to divide the household, to set children against their parents and parents against their children.
That's what he said. So let's not be let's put our faith in Jesus Christ and his living church. And its history is one of difficulty, and that's the way it should be. Look what the world did to Jesus Christ, put him on the cross. It's the way they got rid of him.
So they thought they thought they'd settled the whole business when they put him in a tomb, but it didn't work. So Christ Church is here, and we have his word for it. It suffers mostly from within, but it suffers. Christ suffered on the cross. Nothing to be wondered at.
And so with with the feast of this great man, Charles Barrow Mayo, let us reaffirm our faith in the church, in the living voice of Jesus Christ, and have confidence and joy, and I say joy in our faith. We are not without an anchor. We are not without a compass. We are not off course. We know where we're going when we're in the bark of Jesus Christ.
In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.