Father Richard Cipolla preached the following sermon at the Solemn Mass offered at the Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Manhattan on Sept. 22.
September Ember Saturday/Mother Cabrini 22 Sept 2012
From the fourth lesson from the prophet Zecharia: These then are the things which you shall do: Speak the truth every one to his neighbor; judge truth and judgment of peace in your gates; and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his friend.
How many present here know the origin of the Japanese word, tempura? This word has come into the English language and is well known especially to those who like fried shrimp: shrimp tempura. It is not a secret but a fact not well known that this word in its Latin form was introduced to the Japanese by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in the context of the Mass we are celebrating today, today being Ember Saturday in September, otherwise known as Quattuor Anni Tempora, the four times of the year. These days were and are, at least in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite, days of abstinence. And so the Portuguese Jesuits, to help their converts plan meals that were meatless, introduced them to fried shrimp, to be eaten during the Quattuor Tempora, and the Japanese still call shrimp fried in a batter, tempura, from Tempora.
Most here, but more than most Catholics, do not know that the Ember Days go back to at least the fourth century in the Church, and that Pope Leo believed they were of apostolic origin. They occur four times in the year: after St Lucy’s Day in December, after Ash Wednesday, after Pentecost, and after the Feast of the Holy Cross in September. The Ember Days are always on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. And if you look at when they occur, you see that they come at the beginning of the natural seasons of the year: autumn, winter, spring and summer. These wonderful days marked a pause in the year, when the natural calendar and the Church calendar, paused to take stock of the present and to look forward to the future and invoke God in behalf of the spiritual life of the individual and beseeching the Almighty that the physical needs of the men and women of the world would be met, praying for things like good weather, a good harvest, justice and peace. And if you look at the prayers and readings for this Ember Day Mass, you will see all of these elements come together. The Ember Days were also associated with prayers for vocations and as a time for ordinations: after the Kyrie the Tonsure was conferred; after the first lesson, the door-keepers are ordained; after the second, the readers; after the third, the exorcists; after the fourth, the acolytes; after the fifth, the subdeacons; after the epistle, the deacons; and before the last verse of the Tract, the priests.
One of the tragedies of the post-Conciliar time of the Church is the disappearance of the Ember Days. As part of the liturgical reform, the Ember Days were suppressed, but Pope Paul VI asked that the bishops of each country encourage the celebration of Masses during the year that would echo the themes of the Ember Days. He also lifted the requirement of abstinence for these days. But the fact is that once a custom grounded in Tradition is made optional or left to the judgment of a local church, that custom disappears. In retrospect, we can see that at the very time when Catholics, faced with an increasingly secular culture, needed these four times in the year to fast and pray in the rhythm of the Church year and the year of nature to remind themselves of who they are and what is ultimately important, the Ember Days were removed from the universal calendar in the name of reform. Surely the loss of Catholic identity that is a mark of this present time is in part due to the removal and suppression of those very ways, liturgically and naturally, that are reminders to Catholics of who they are and to what they are called. It is a great blessing that we come here today and celebrate this Saturday Ember Day in this shrine church.
And we do so in the presence of the mortal remains of una santa grande, a great saint, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. She heard these readings every year at Mass, and surely they resonated with her and her mission. Jesus’ healing miracle in the gospel must have struck her in a special way, she for whom faith and good works were inseparable. Like all great saints, Mother Cabrini understood that faith is not something that is held close and put into a lovely box to look at when the mood strikes. She thought she had a calling to the religious life early on in Italy, but because of her poor health, she was refused. So she went to run an orphanage in Lombardia, and it was there that she drew other women around her and founded the beginnings of what she envisaged as a missionary institute and what would eventually become the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Perhaps somewhat romantically, she dreamed of a missionary effort in China. But in her meeting with the great Pope Leo XIII, she heard from him those words oft quoted: Not to the East, Sister, but to the West. For the Pope was acutely aware of the dire need for a ministry to the hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants who came to the United States to escape the poverty and the turmoil of their life in Italy, especially in the poverty stricken southern part of Italy. They came here not knowing the language, strangers in a foreign land, looked down upon, unsure of their faith in a Protestant country, subject to proselytizing by those taking advantage of their ignorance and poverty. And so Mother Cabrini came to New York, hoping to found an orphanage for Italian immigrant children. Cardinal Corrigan told her that it was not opportune to do what she wanted to do and told her to return to Italy. But Mother Cabrini did not return to Italy and stayed in Manhattan and ministered in a remarkable way to the Italian immigrants, and she ministered to them not only spiritually but in practical ways: in housing, in education, in gaining employment. She was a realist and this realism came from her Catholic faith: she said: When one works for the glory of God, then His works are subjected to violence. This is why I am never surprised when I meet opposition in my ventures. In fact, I look upon them as good signs. For to whatever degree I am confronted by opposition or violence, that is the measure of how much I succeeded I glorifying the Divine Majesty”.
Mother Cabrini was not just another woman who did much good among the poor and dispossessed. Her holiness came from her faith that compelled her to do what she did. This is what our age does not understand. Contrary to the New York Times, it does matter for a Catholic religious whether he or she is at one with the teaching of the Church, for without this unity of mind, heart and spirit with the Church, good works performed are not what they should be: pointers to the love of God in Jesus Christ, without which all good works are in vain. What drove her was her love for Christ. She said: I will go anywhere and do anything in order to communicate the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him or who have forgotten Him. And she brought Christ to the poor not only in New York, but in Chicago and Denver and Louisiana and California, and yes, even to New Jersey. And even to Argentina and Brazil and Nicaragua: wherever there were poor immigrants, she ministered to them in the name of Christ.
Mother Cabrini loved this country and its people deeply and became an American citizen and became the first American citizen to be canonized. We must remember this as well: the Mass we celebrate here today was the Mass that Mother Cabrini knew and loved, it is the Mass that was at the heart of her life as a Catholic and religious, it is the Mass that strengthened her and enabled her to do the remarkable things she did, it is the Mass to which she brought back so many immigrants who had fallen away. We ask the intercession today of Mother Cabrini: that the Traditional Mass may bring back to the Church the many who have drifted away from the faith, that the Traditional Mass may once again be the light that shines in the darkness, the antidote to the grey secularism of our time that threatens faith itself, that more and more young priests may be brought to the beauty and truth of this Mass and so be transformed spiritually just as the bread and wine are transformed at this Mass into the Body and Blood of Christ. And finally we address her, she who is present with us at this Mass with all the angels and saints in that language that was hers from her birth, that language of art and music, quella lingua la più bella del mondo. Madre Cabrini, prega per la Chiesa Cattolica. Aiuta il nostro Papa, Benedetto, che abbia corraggio, fede, e santità. O Santa Francesca Savero, prega che la messa tradizionale può rinnovare la Chiesa e riscaldare il cuore dei suoi fedeli. Prega per tutti noi, che possiamo portare l’amore di Cristo in un mondo che ha dimenticato che cos’è l’amore.
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