A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus coming down from Galilee appeared before John at the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But he tried to refuse Jesus, protesting. I should be baptized by you, yet you come to me. Our lord replied, give in for now.
We must do this if we would fulfill all of god's commands. Now that all of god's command is the way they translate one Greek noun, and that noun is righteousness. And I don't know why they didn't put it in there. I think it's just as clear as what they have there. But, anyway, I want you to remember that.
I'll repeat it. We must do this, our lord is saying to John. We must do this if we would fulfill all of god's commands. The word there is righteousness. If we would fulfill God's righteousness.
So John consented. After Jesus was baptized, he came directly out of the water. Suddenly, the sky opened and he saw the spirit of god descend like a dove and hover over him. With that, a voice from the heavens said, this is my beloved son. My favor rests upon him.
And this is the gospel of the lord. And Before I enter in my well well chosen remarks, I'm gonna play the part of a husker husker, whatever. Somebody who sells things. Because from time to time, odd nauseam, I'm sure some of you say, I have referred to the New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And here, thanks to mister Larry Carl, who gives his devoted service to our book rack, we have secured a number of copies.
This is what it looks like. They're back on the bookshelf. It's a thin book. It's probably the best buy you can make. It's $4 plus, I think, 75¢ or so.
It has a dictionary I mean, it has a dictionary of biblical terms. It has an index. It's beautifully printed, and it's the latest revision of what we've just read, the confraternity's translation of the New Testament. Now certainly every Catholic home ought to have a copy of the New Testament where they can put out their arm and pick it up. And I might add, another book to go with it is a a dictionary of the English language.
There's no better help to clear thinking than that. So there are several copies are available on the bookshelf, in a book right back there. And I certainly urge you, all of you should have it's a very thin, very easy, very readable, plenty of good notes in it. It's a very well done proposition. So I certainly do encourage you to have it.
And have it available. Use it. Have it at your kitchen sink or something where you pick it up and read. Because as I say, what we do during the liturgical year, which is the calendar year, taking this these texts and and splintering them up into little pieces, well, you know, a splinter is not a tree. That's perfectly clear, is it?
And that's what we do. We splinter the word of god from into each Sunday, and we wind up, of course, with what? What? What do you wind up with? Well, the first is I say whatever you have to say and what you must say, this is these are scriptures meant to be read.
They were written to be read. And, therefore, you should have the the book which has the script, which can be written. And so here it is. There are several there are 10 nine copies back there. There will be 10, and they're for your picking up.
Now the text I wanna use is all contained in that word righteousness. Righteousness. Is the Greek word. It's perfectly clear in the in the in the Greek. I don't know why.
What they've done, you see, is to substitute a translation for the word, which which is alright. But the point is that word righteousness has the word right in it, r I g h t. And that's what I wanna talk about. That one word had summarized everything I wanna say this morning or try to say or or try to get you thinking. That is the righteousness of god.
So our blessed lord this is my translation. Little free. Jesus asked John to be baptized, but John objected. I ought to be baptized by you. Our lord replied, go ahead and baptize me for we should fulfill all righteousness.
That's the literal translation of the Greek. We should fulfill all righteousness. What does that word righteousness mean? That Greek word has a lot of meanings. Like like most words, remember Humpty Dumpty when it comes to words.
But what it means in the bible and what it means here today in this context is simply this, that we fulfill god's will. That we, in this life, as much of it as we have and in what whatever state we find ourselves or put ourselves, our one our one purpose overriding everything else is to conform to the plans that god almighty has laid out for us. As Newman said, god does not act by chance or haphazardly. God has given each one of us a work to do. Now I emphasize each one of us, and I never that thing hits me right between the eyes.
When I see for when when we see, for example, a paralytic or a person, a fearful sight that I saw down in Cartagena last year, a woman who was completely demented wandering around the street roll rolling in the dust, rolling, rolling in the dust, begging for a few cents to get some food. And you see, God created that to image and likeness? Well, you bet he did. You bet he did. And what I don't have any solution to the problem of evil, but I do say I have to admit what Newman said.
That woman, demented, rolling in the dust of the road, has a work to do in god's plan. It isn't a freak of nature. It didn't happen by a gamble. That's hard to listen. We cannot talk this way and think we're making sense for the Washington Post to put in an editorial.
This is not of this world. And Christ said, I am not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world, and you better belong to my world. Yet, you're in the world, but don't you belong to that world? You belong to me, and my world is not that world.
So keep that in the back of your head all the time. We're not talking for the benefit of vogue or count a town and country or something. We are talking in terms of Jesus Christ, god almighty. And so our one ambition in life, our one absolutely overriding everything else, that doesn't mean it destroys everything else. It overrides them, is to do what god has laid out for me to do.
And unless I do it, it doesn't get done. Now to back that up with with reality, being a good old Aristotelian, get your feet on the ground and keep them there, but keep your head up in the heavens. I wanna tell you a story came out of the first World War, and then I wanna talk about two saints, neighboring. One of them are neighbor up the road. The first is the story, and I've told this, but I can't improve on it.
It it and this was told by a former governor and judge in The United States. After the first world war, a town in Belgium was severe of course, had been severely do bombed. The first thing that the the villagers wanted to do was to restore their church, the building. Keep that in mind how important the church building I mean, just the building. It's terribly important as a center.
Anyway, so the first thing they thought of even before their own homes was to get the house of god restored. And they did a fast good job. They're used to rebuilding over there. And, the church was all finished. The statues had all been repaired and put back in their niches, and everything was in order with one exception.
The statue of Christ had no hands. They couldn't find the hands in the rubble. And so on the day of the rededication of the church, as the parishioners filed by admiring what had been done, they read an inscription under that statue of the handless Christ, I have no other hands but yours but yours. That's pretty that's very close to the truth, isn't it? Absolutely.
I have no other hands but yours. Now I wanna back that up now with with two saints. We had their feasts on Monday and Tuesday, and it's not an accident that that the the Catholic church has put them back to back. January 4 to January 5. January 4, we celebrated the feast of saint Elizabeth Ann Bailey Seaton, our neighbor up the road in Emmitsburg in the she's buried in the basilica up there.
And then on Tuesday, had the feast of Saint John Neumann, n e u m a n, the bishop of Philadelphia. First the woman, then the man. They Elizabeth Seton died in 1821. John Neumann died in 1860. And they lived in the to to the latter part of their forty years.
One was 49 and the other was 47, which today is relatively young. But both of them died at that age. And when you think of what they accomplished, it's it's it's awesome. Now first, let's take Saint Elizabeth. Saint Elizabeth Ann.
I like to Saint Elizabeth Ann Bailey was her family name, Seton. She married William Seton. Now the first thing I wanna point out about that woman is there is nobody sitting in these pews Sunday after Sunday who cannot identify with Saint Elizabeth Ann Bailey Seaton. Well, most of people coming in here are not protestants to begin with, Episcopalians. That's where she started.
So there there's quite a little difference. Although we have a number of converts. She came from a very she came from New York, came from a very socially elevated family of means. Her grandfather was an Episcopalian minister. Her other grandfather was a was a a very famous physician at at what became the Columbia School of Medicine.
She she when she was about 20, she made a very, very beautiful, loving marriage with William c William Richard Seaton, a man of wealth, a socialite, a fine man with all with with everything going for him. It was a lovely wedding, very social, very elevated, everything fine. In quick order, they produced five children, two boys and three girls. And then, wham, bingo, in reverse. He lost his fortune, then he lost his health, and then to try to recover his health, they thought a trip to Italy, Northern Italy would help.
So with two of their children, they then left the other three here. They took off for Italy for the and became the guest of a family named Ficino Ficino. And then he died. Left her with five children. She's over there in a strange country, but that family was Catholic.
That Catholic that Catholic family was her introduction to Catholicism. She she had been a very religious Episcopalian. They called her the the the Episcopalian the the sister of charity, but this was her introduction to Now just to see what happens. See how the lord takes care of his friends. It's scary.
So she comes back to New York to her family with her unite to be united with her children, and she informs the family, these good episcopal New York episcopal remember, is at the first half of the nineteenth century that she's going to become a Catholic, a Catholic. And their reaction was, if you do, we're gonna kick you out. We'll disown you and your children, their their grandchildren. And that's exactly what she did. She became a Catholic and they kicked her out into the streets practically.
She was destitute. A young widow with five children. Her family disowned her. She and of course, in those days, there wasn't a job she could do. I mean, respectable job.
So she was literally, she was destitute. That's what happened to her by becoming a Catholic because her I guess her parents thought that she would never carry through. So then, in order to to get into an atmosphere which where she could be a little more comfortable with her Catholicism than New York as an erstwhile Episcopalian, she then went up to Canada, to Montreal. And there she became equated with the Sophicians in the in that famous seminary, first seminary in the New World. And they got in touch, the Sophicians up in Montreal got in touch with father DuBurg over in Baltimore on North Packer Street, Saint Mary's Seminary.
And he, DuBurg, invited Elizabeth to come down and open up a school. And you can still see the building. It's a it's a landmark in Maryland right beside the old seminary on Packersfield, a brick house. So she came down with her five children and opened up a school right beside the seminary. That's how parochial education began in The USA.
Well, the school prospered, some other women joined her, they formed a little association, then they got approval to wear a hat. Notice, they wanted to wear a habit. That's one of the first things they wanted to do. Of course, now that's got we all got rid of that. But that's one of the first things they did to because that you gave a bond that united them.
Then then the this they moved the school from Packer Street up to Emmitsburg, and then she was helped by the by the priests and faculty from Mount Saint Mary's College, which had been also founded by and that was the beginning of the parochial and Catholic education in The United States Of America. Furthermore, her cross was not an as she said, it a thorn in her side. She had two sons and she that's what she called them, thorns in her side. She had a rough time with them and she and two of her daughters died. You see what I mean?
How how many different kinds of things that woman suffered. When they elected her head of the religious order affiliated with the sisters of charity, she said, you have elected a dead person. You have elected a dead person. That's what she said. Now you wanna know what god's will is?
Look at it. First of all, it's people say it's difficult for me to unknow what god's will is. I don't believe that. In in most instances, god's will is very evident. It's not tomorrow or next week.
It's here. All that all that Elizabeth did was to take the next step of what seemed to be what what appeared to be what she had to do. And she did it. Then she took the next step, and the next step, and the next step, the the next step, and then she died. I do not ask to see the distant scene.
I ask to see no. I do not ask that, said Newman. One step enough for me. One step. See, we wanna take a whole leap with a with a help of a parachute or something.
So there you have someone who took it literally to do god's will, Facing a lot of the unknown, facing darkness, facing irrationality, facing facing her being thrown out by her family, being discarded by her friends, You name it. She suffered it all. Rebellious children, death in the family, two of her daughters die. Two out of three died. She went through it all.
God's righteousness. God's righteousness. It's no joke. It's taking up the cross of Jesus Christ and following him. Now the second person is John that's Saint Elizabeth is so attractive.
She speaks so sensibly. She's so rational. She's so solid in her faith. None of this moonshine as Newman as Lewis would call it. C.
S. Lewis. She was a solid woman and what she did, what she did for education in The United States, she built orphanages. Well let's come to John Neumann. He died in 1860 before the civil war.
Now John Neumann came from from Bohemia. He he finished his studies for the priesthood in Prague. He had finished he had completely finished his studies now. Is that clear? Completely ready to be ordained.
When his own bishop says, I have no use for you. Do what you can. Find another bishop. That's how his righteousness started. So he betook himself on the first boat to New York.
He landed in New York with $1 in his pocket and wearing one suit of clothes, and that's all he had when he landed and no English. Now you can't begin with less than that, really. So he presented himself to the chancery, met the upper archbishop, and they took him in because he spoke German. He spoke five languages and then he learned English. Alright.
Keep that in mind. The one of his difficulties was his appearance was poor. I mean, he was only five feet three inches. He was very shy. He had no English to begin with.
And when he at his best, he he never mastered it very well. He was not a good preacher. He did not make a good appearance. In other words, he had a lot of negatives. So they sent him up to Troy and up to Buffalo, New York where there's a big German colony, and he took over there.
And then one thing led to another and he came back to Baltimore, joined the Redemptorists, became their provincial, and then he was made Bishop of Philadelphia. Now he succeeded a man who had been greatly admired, a very fine preacher, a man who spoke English very well, who was accepted by the Philadelphia elite, the main liners, you know. And when they heard that John Newman was going to succeed him, you know what they did? They formed a petition and a campaign to have the holy father reject the idea of his coming to Philadelphia as the bishop. That's how he started out.
And he was never accepted up there. Never. He died under a big cloud because there had been a a a campaign to have him resign against his will. They didn't want him. And yet that man, in the in his few short years, he built over 80 churches.
He established parochial schools. He had a he under him, the attendance went from about 500 kids in schools to 9,000. He spoke six languages. He translated books, especially a catechism, and yet he was never accepted. But he became a saint.
The last letter he wrote practically was the holy father saying, if you want me to resign, I will resign, but I won't do it otherwise. See, he had backbone, all five feet three inches of him. Now these are two examples. These lives speak to me much more than than words do. But we have to deal with words.
These are people that we know. They're in our in the last generate I mean, the last century. As I say, sis Saint Elizabeth's right up the road in that basilica. Saint John Newman's was the bishop of Philadelphia died in 1860. These are and remember, Elizabeth's the first American saint.
But look what it meant for them to accept and fulfill god's righteousness. Look at their lives. Do you expect something better than that? Is Christianity comfortable? Is being a Catholic an easy, fulfilling, joyous, all hallelujahs, peace, love, light?
Is that what it is? Look at these two lives. And I I don't find anything quite extraordinary about them. There some people have less, of course. But into every life, somebody said some rain must fall.
Believe me. And sometimes it's a darn deluge. That's what it means to follow the righteousness of God, to do what he wants us to do, to follow his plan. I have had had a number of people come to me in my misspent years to talk over their lives. I have yet to have one person say, what is god's will?
One. Nobody ever began by saying that. Father, I wanna do god's will. Help me to find it. I've never heard that, and these were all good Catholics.
Why shouldn't that come first? Not what I want, not what seems to me what to be fulfilling, comfortable, happy making, joyous light. It may be none of those things. I mean none. Look at poor old John Newman.
From the very beginning, before he was he was ordained a priest over here in New York. Here he had given his life, he was a good student and all of that in Prague. Then when he's on the threshold of being ordained, we don't have any room for you. Do what you want. I remember that happening in my early days in the seminary.
They had so many priests up in Boston and Philadelphia and New York. They would skim over skim off a certain percentage and say, look, we've educated you but but this was not when just before they were ordained. This was in the prep SAM. And so do we have a right to expect our lives to be so totally different? Do we?
If we do, we are on the wrong track. Because all our blessed lord ever promised us by following him was a cross. On the other hand, that's not all of the promise. He said, if you take up that cross and carry it behind me, you will find it light and sweet. Now that's what Christ said.
God said that. He said the cross was there but at the same time he said, if you'd pick it up and follow me. No. You're gonna have the cross anyway. Follow me then you will find it sweet and my burden light.
Light, God. God said light. So I come back and end with Newman. Read his life if you wanna see what it meant to him to be a Catholic, what he gave up, and how he was treated. He was nearly thrown out of the church, you know.
The only thing saved was Leo the thirteenth. So I wind up with his famous lines. Leave kindly light. Lead thou me on. I do not ask to see the distance seen.
One step enough for me. In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit. Amen.