Sermon for the Feast of the Epiphany

given by Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, New York City

6 January 2020

From the Gospel of St. Matthew:  “We have observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.”

There in that verse is the credo of science, or better still, the credo of the scientist, what makes science go, what makes it relevant, what makes it real.  And these words come from the scientists of Jesus’ time, the Magi, the Wise Men.  Of course, they have little to do with that experimental science that has become since the Enlightenment what science now is, that dispassionate observation of a phenomenon followed by analysis and formation of a theory.  Most scientists today would be offended by being put into the same category as the Magi, but that is their problem, for they have lost the focus of science.

The root of the word science comes from the Latin verb, scio, which means to know, and thus knowledge is at the heart of science, the scientist wants to know.  But modern science has forgotten, with some important exceptions like Einstein, that knowledge is not an end in itself. Nor is knowledge limited to the physical world.  Nor is the quest for knowledge a dispassionate enterprise, as if objectivity defines science.  There can be no doubt that the modern scientific method has resulted in a great increase in knowledge about the universe the physical world, both on a macro and an atomic scale.  There can be no doubt that modern science has contributed greatly to a higher quality of life for so many people.  There can be no doubt that modern science has been successful in fighting disease and finding cures and in increasing the ordinary life span of men and women.

But scientists have forgotten with increasingly disastrous results, the relationship between knowledge and wisdom, and the ultimate goal that is truth.  A science that believes its own myth of total objectivity, which narrowly and prejudicially limits reality to a narrow band on the whole spectrum and that confuses facts with truth, produces baleful results.  This results in a world in which morality is relativized and banished to the arcane sphere of religious systems, a world in which the fragility and wonder of being human is bludgeoned by doctors dreaming of the brave new world of designer embryos.

“We have observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage”.  There is the statement of a true scientist.  Unlike the nervous machinations of Herod, who resents the intrusion of the supernatural into his petty life, the Magi take a more cosmic, a more all-encompassing view of things. They do not limit reality, these magoi from the East, these strange men that come from “pagan” lands. They show a docility, an openness and readiness to obey the truth that we saw twelve days ago in our Christmas celebration in the persons of Mary and Joseph.  We saw and we came.  There it is.  There is a wonderful directness, a linear speed leading without hesitation from insight to action: they saw the King’s star and immediately came to adore him.  In these “pagans” we see a perfect unity between patient science and moral justice that is an example for all Christians, and especially for those of us who call ourselves scientists.  The scientist who really seeks truth is a wise man who when he finds the truth does not hesitate to subject himself to that truth.  When one encounters truth, when God gives us the grace to encounter truth, the only possible response is to give oneself to that truth.  And this act of giving oneself to truth, this encounter with truth, this demands worship and adoration.

This for me is why I know that Catholic faith to be true and why the Catholic Church is the Church founded by Jesus Christ.  This is because at the heart of the practice of the Catholic faith is not figuring out what biblical passages mean by pseudo-scientific rationalism.  It is not fiery sermons.  It is in fact never words.  It is worship, it is adoration.  What goes on here in the Mass, what goes on in the chanting of the daily Office in monasteries, what goes on when the Holy Eucharist is adored:  this is the goal of science.  For this is the response to that encounter with the infinite truth of God in the living person of Jesus Christ, this person who is not outside of the subject of scientific inquiry in the physical world but rather is the very center of the physical world.  That is what we forget, we Christians who are so in awe of the scientist who performs his brand of magic by forcing us to live in a petty and narrow band of reality.  We forget the shocking claim that God became flesh, and therefore that all science, all seeking after knowledge must and does lead to the Word through whom all was created and who took flesh and was born of a Virgin.

We can hear the outcry to all of this from those who would bind us all by the shackles of the self-named Enlightenment. They say:  You are mixing up science and religion. And by this what they mean is that we are mixing up reality with wishful thinking.  So many Christians cower under this attack from the so called scientific, rational world, a world that includes not only many scientists but also the world typified by the “liberal” media that pride themselves on being beacons of sense and sensibility and tolerance and having a sure sense of what the future should look like.  How many Catholics are embarrassed by their religion and try so hard to fit in better to what everyone else seems to think and act?  How many Catholics, when faced with the American steamroller of secularism, willingly lie down in its path and come up again as two dimensional caricatures of the Catholic faith, the dimensions of which are infinite?  How many Christian clergy spend time in their Epiphany sermon explaining the star as a myth of which the Magi are the lead actors, as just a good story that has a moral lesson, and in so doing close for the people the meaning and wonder of the Epiphany?  The Child born in a stable in humility and weakness is already present in the constellation of the stars by his splendor and glory.  “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork”. Either that is true or it is not.  Christ is always a cause of rejoicing for the wise and a cause of consternation and fear for the obstinately foolish.  Listen to the answer of the Wise Men to Herod that the liturgy sings in the antiphon on the Magnificat in Epiphanytide:  “Interrogabat Magos Herodes:  Herod questioned the Magi:  What sign did you see about the king who has been born?  We saw a dazzling star, whose splendor illumines the world.”  Whose splendor illumines the world.  This light cannot be holed up in a box, even in a religious box.  It cannot be extinguished by the lies and darkness of the world of anxious Herods.  For it is the light of God.

So we come here, we come together in a world that is defined by the advances and limitations of modern science.  But we come here, you and I, as true scientists, scientists as defined the Magi, the Wise Men.  Graham Greene said once: “I do not believe in God. I touch God, I eat God.” We by the grace of God know the Truth, and we come here to embrace that Truth, to subject ourselves to that Truth, by this act of worship and adoration.  Oh how important to this world are places like this church where true science flourishes, where worship and adoration are the constant responses to truth! Just as the monasteries were vital to keeping the light alive in the dark days of the barbarian invasions after the fall of the Roman empire, so in our time when the barbarians of secularism threaten to plunge us once again into darkness, places like this where the Traditional Roman Mass is celebrated in all of its solemn beauty, the supreme act of worship and adoration, places like this church are precisely where the light of the star of Bethlehem will be seen and where the glory of the Lord will illumine the darkness of the night.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,

Cherubim and Seraphim thronged the air.

But only his Mother in her maiden bliss

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb.

If I were a wise man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him, give Him my heart.

(Christina Rossetti)

Photos from last night’s  Solemn Mass for the Feast of the Epiphany at Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in New York. Father Richard Cipolla was the celebrant. Fr. William Elder, pastor of Most Holy Redeemer, served as deacon.  The church was splendidly decorated for a festive celebration of the 12th Day of Christmas.

Above and below:  Fr. Cipolla blesses and distributes the chalk for Epiphany.

Midnight Mass at Holy Innocents Church, Manhattan.  Photos courtesy of Arrys Ortanez.

Our Lady of Refuge Church,  Bronx, NY.  Photos courtesy of Joanne O’Beirne

Midnight Mass at St. Josaphat Church, Bayside, NY.  Photos courtesy of Julie Collorafi.

Christmas Day Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, New York.  Father Christopher Salvatori, celebrant.

Midnight Mass at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, CT.  Photos from Sts. Cyril and Methodius Facebook page.

Christmas Day Mass at St.Patrick’s Church, Newburgh, NY.  Photo from  AdaltareDei Facebook page.

By Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

Just when one thinks that one has read all of the mindless and harmful stuff that Catholic clergy have written or spoken, that assumption is shattered, this time by a truly offensive homily given by Father Michael Mullaney, the President of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland, a section of which homily was published on Rorate Caeli a short while ago.

The homily was preached at the annual Christmas Carol Service at Maynooth, in the presence, we may suppose, of other clergy, seminarians and laity.  The topic of the homily is the sin of racism in contemporary Western society.  That racism is a sin according to Catholic teaching there is no doubt.  The Catholic Catechism is quite clear on this:

The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it. “Every from of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights of the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.”(CCC no. 1935)

There are many statements in Church documents of all types that confirm the sinfulness of racism.  Would that Father Mullaney used one of these texts as the foundation for his homily.  Instead he uses the story in the Gospel of St. Mark about Jesus’ encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman who wanted him to cure her daughter who was very sick. The following is Father Mullaney’s use of this encounter as an example of how everyone can commit the sin of racism.

Even Jesus had to confront his ingrained prejudices; indeed, even racism. The Gospels recount his stunning and unique encounter with a Syro-Phoenician woman desperately seeking a cure for her sick daughter. The disciples dismiss her as she was considered racially inferior. Surprisingly, Jesus sharply rejects her appeal. His mission is to the Jews only; his tribe; the children of God. When the woman insists, Jesus dismisses her again– calling her shockingly a ‘dog’ – a racial slur. The woman doesn’t challenge his insult. Like so many victims in history, she has internalized her inferiority. But her repartee: “Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” is the only recorded encounter that left Jesus speechless. If we truly celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation, of God who takes human flesh, it should not surprise us that Jesus could not have avoided the effects of the prejudices that had shaped his human and cultural identity from childhood.

We do not know what Jesus thought in that moment. But the Syro-Phoenician woman dislocates Jesus from his narrow tribal suppositions and prejudices about the ‘other’ represented by her. She ceases to be an ‘outsider’. God’s heart could not be closed to her. She too is one of the children of God. Physical healing is given not only to her daughter but ultimately the deeper wounds of isolation, marginalization and discrimination become central to Jesus’ healing and liberating ministry in the Gospel. In this transformative encounter Jesus demonstrates that regardless of how unwittingly and unknowingly we are part of the problem, we can choose to reject racism and hostility to the ‘other’, the stranger, in ourselves and in our world, committing ourselves to the slow, hard work of transformation.

The whole passage is so wrong-headed that one hardly knows where to begin to react to these words in a homily delivered by a priest who is helping to train seminarians to become good priests.  Let us begin with the observation that Father Mullaney believes that in this encounter between Jesus and the woman that Jesus is acting like a racist, that is, his comments to her are racist.  If this be true, then Jesus is sinning against this woman.  It is obvious that this contradicts the dogma of the sinlessness of Jesus, “he who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), which is an integral part of the Church’s understanding of the Incarnation itself.  But Father Mullaney has his own understanding of the Incarnation:   “if we truly celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation, of God who takes human flesh, it should not surprise us that Jesus could not have avoided the effects of the prejudices that had shaped his human an cultural identity from childhood.”  Does this imply that he learned these prejudices that are racist from his mother and father?  Did his mother, the Virgin Mary, gratia plena, whose sinlessness is also a part of Church teaching, teach him to be a racist and consider people other than Jews “dogs”? If Father Mullaney believes this, he should read up on the heretical kenotic doctrines of liberal Protestantism that have been condemned many times by the Church.  More fundamentally, he should also read up on the context of this passage in the Gospel of St. Mark.

Father Mullaney begins the next paragraph of the sermon with this statement:

“We do not know what Jesus thought in that moment” Thanks be to God for the preacher’s admission that he could not see into the mind of Jesus at the moment! But he has already claimed to know that Jesus harbored racist attitudes towards this woman.  And in the next sentences he credits the woman with “dislocating Jesus from his narrow tribal suppositions and prejudices about the ‘other’ represented by her.” In this way, by her persistence the woman pricks Jesus conscience, and he feels guilty, and from that feeling of guilt is converted from his racist attitudes to a more enlightened moral understanding. This event marks a “conversion experience” for the man Jesus.

Is this the same Jesus who recounted the parable of the Good Samaritan? Is this the Jesus who reprimands Peter for cutting off the Roman soldier’s ear, this man the symbol of Roman oppression of the Jews?   Is this the Jesus who speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well and brings her to faith? Is this the Jesus who said:  “The Second (Commandment) is this:  Love your neighbor as yourself.”?  Is this the Jesus who gave the Great Commission to the Apostles to “go and make disciples of allnations”? And finally:  Is this the Jesus who died on the Cross not only for his own people, the Jews, but for the whole world?

I have long thought that most heresies are attempts to make the Incarnation easier to understand and accept, to make the inherent contradiction that is at the heart of the person of Jesus Christ as true God and true man, two natures in one person—to make this contradiction go away.  This was at the heart of Arianism, of Nestorianism, of the complex Gnostic systems, of those Protestant sects who at the Reformation and beyond rejected the divinity of Christ, of those in our own time who in their own way deny the radical nature of the Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation, including the many Catholics who deny the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

I wish I could take Father Mullaney’s homily with a sense of irony that he would preach this in preparation for the feast of Christmas.  For irony allows us to distance ourselves from things that are truly bad. Irony allows us to refuse to engage with the distortion of truth when we see it or hear it or read it.  I wish I could distance myself from what this priest said in this homily and say with a wry and knowing sardonic smile: “And this guy is preparing priests!”.  But I cannot.  The only thing I can do is to be sad, pray for him, and hope that his bishop will chastise him and correct him, and that he will never again shamelessly disfigure a Carol Service celebrating the birth of the God-man who alone can be the Savior of the whole world.

Stained glass window in the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, New York, NY

Wednesday, January 1, the Circumcision of Our Lord, the Octave of Christmas, is a Holy Day of Obligation.  The following church will offer the traditional Mass.

Connecticut

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, 9:30 am Solemn Mass.

St. Patrick Church (the Cathedral Parish)  Bridgeport, CT, 12:15 pm, High Mass.

Saints Cyril and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, CT,  8:30 am low Mass;  10:15 am high Mass.

St. Stanislaus Church, New Haven, CT,  2 pm

St. Patrick Parish and Oratory, Waterbury, CT,  8:30 am, Low Mass; 10:30 am High Mass.

St. Francis Church, New Britain, CT,  5 pm

St. Martha Church, Enfield, CT,  11 am.

New York

Church of the Holy Innocents, New York, NY,  New Year’s Eve:  11:30 pm, High Mass; New Years Day,  9 am, Low Mass; 10:30 am High Mass

St. Agnes Church, New York, NY,  10:30 am

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, New York, NY, 10:30 am Missa Cantata

St. Josaphat Church, Bayside (Queens), NY,  9:30 am.

St. Paul the Apostle Church,  Yonkers, NY,  12 noon.

Annunciation Church, Yonkers (Crestwood), NY,  10 am

Immaculate Conception Church,  Sleepy Hollow, NY,  3 pm

Our Lady of the Way Chapel, Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY,  10 am

Holy Trinity Church, Poughkeepsie, NY, 6 pm, Solemn Mass.

St. Rocco Church, Glen Cove, NY  (Long Island)  11:30 am

St. Matthew Church, Dix Hills, NY  (Long Island),  10:30 am

St. Peter Church, Amagansett, NY  (Long Island),  12 noon

New Jersey

Assumption Church,  344 Pacific Avenue, Jersey City, 12 noon.  Fr. Perricone, celebrant. Convivium after Mass.  Please bring food to share.

Our Lady of Fatima Chapel,(FSSP) 32 West Franklin Ave., Pequannock, NJ (Northern NJ)  7 AM, 9 AM, 11 AM, and 5 PM. (No 7 pm Mass on Tuesday, December 31) Confessions 15 minutes before each Mass.

St. Anthony of Padua Oratory (ICKSP), 1360 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ  (suburbs not far from Newark Basilica via I-280) 9 AM and 11 AM. Confessions heard 30 minutes before each Mass.

Corpus Christi Parish, (near Rutgers New Brunswick) 100 James Street, South River, NJ:  6:15 p.m. Low Mass.

The Church of St. Catherine Laboure, (Raritan Bayshore) 130 Bray Avenue, Middletown, NJ – 9 AM

St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church (western Monmouth County), 1282 Yardville Allentown Rd, Allentown, NJ  11 AM

Mater Ecclesiae, 261 Cross Keys Road, Berlin, NJ: Tuesday, December 31 – 5 pm anticipated Low Mass; Wednesday, January 1, 2020 – 8 am Low Mass, 10:30 am High Mass. Confessions heard half hour before Mass. (Half hour east of Philadelphia)

St. Gianna Beretta Molla Parish, 1421 New Road, Northfield, NJ, 12:30 PM (near Atlantic City)

Window in the church of St. Mary, Charleston S.C. (Mayer of Munich)

A blessed and holy Christmas to all our members and readers!