33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 18, 2007

By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

This photograph on the front of the bulletin is of Blessed Miguel Agustin Pro, Padre Pro, as he is known affectionately. We snarl at the grainy character of the photograph. This photograph was taken by a man the government hired. This event was also filmed. President Calles of Mexico had declared that he wished to wipe out religion from his country. You think that we are past that stage. Cardinal Pell of Australia recently said that the same thing was essentially happening in Australia. Someone attempted to put the Cardinal in jail because he spoke out against cloning. Some of those in the Australian Congress wished to use the state against Cardinal Pell for being religious.

The man who took the picture of Blessed Miguel Agustin Pro knew what was going to happen. The government had figured that priests were cowards and; therefore, if they got execution on film they would be able to dispense the photos and film around as propaganda. Father Pro was not a coward. The photographer knew what would happen to this heroic image of Father Pro and so he took the roll of film out of the camera immediately, dropped it in his boot, and put a new roll of film in his camera. When the government thugs demands his film he gave them the unused film in the camera. The photographer then began walking from Mexico City to Laredo, Texas. This walk probably contributed to the grainy character of the film. Being in a boot for such a long walk is probably not the best way to transport film.

The picture shows that Father Pro was holding his Rosary in his right hand. Moments before he was shot he forgave his soon to be executioners just as Christ on the cross forgave those that were killing him. "Father, forgive them they know not what they are doing."

Father Pro then raised his arms like Jesus on the Cross and said, "Long live Christ the King!" Father Pro's feast is on Friday. Two days later is the Feast of Christ the King. Father Pro is not dressed as a priest in the photo. Up until the time that the government of Mexico began a war on the Church, priests dressed in religious habits and clerical garb. But after the war began churches were locked, priests were not permitted to wear religious clothes. A lot of priests were rounded up and put in prison.

To study the life of Father Pro is amazing. I was praying the Divine Office and Psalm 1,

"Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, lingers in the way of sinners, or sits in the company of scourners but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders His Law day and night. He is like a tree that is planted beside flowing waters that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves never fade and all that he does shall prosper. Not so are the wick not so."

Psalm 1 describes Father Pro but it is arresting to look past Psalm 1 and see this figure of Father Pro about to be shop and realize how far I am from where he it. You see Father Pro had a secret and this is the secret. Christ is the King! Reading about his life we learn that Padre Pro was very fortunate to have made it to adulthood. When he was only a few years old someone gave his family a gift of some fruit. Evidently he was allergic to that fruit. He didn't know he was allergic and ate a great deal of it. He had a terrible reaction to it.

The doctors said that he would die. His parents brought him to church and lifted him up to the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and begged for her help. Little Miguel began to vomit. He even threw up blood. It was a miraculous cure. However, if I were to have been pastor of that church, I would have been thinking two things. I am glad that your child has been cured but who is going to clean that up?

You can see how much Miguel was just a regular child. After this miraculous cure he asked his parents for a cookie. Miguel grew up not recognizing how God had helped him. As a young man he went away one summer on vacation and he wrote home to his loved ones. He wrote a letter to his mother and a letter to his girlfriend. Unfortunately he put the letter in the wrong envelopes. He was just a typical young man.

His sister had a bird once and it got loose. It was a beloved pet. The bird flew up on the roof. Miguel climbed the ladder to catch the bird and just as 14 year old Miguel grabbed the bird his cigarettes fell out of his shirt pocket onto his parents. He was in trouble. He didn't think of the priesthood until his older sister became a nun. All of a sudden he started thinking about what he was to do with his life.

He became a Jesuit seminarian. He studied in California and in Spain. He was ordained in Europe without his family being present. He then sneaked back into his beloved Mexico dressed in lay clothes to serve the people. You may have battled fog this morning to get to Mass but you did not have to battle the government. The churches in Mexico were closed and locked. The kids this morning are probably thinking "great!" This same thing happened in Russia when the Communists took over. It happened in Ireland when the English took over there and it happened in Mexico 80 years ago. The Vatican did something very unusual. They gave permission for the priest to offer Mass without religious vestments. It was also allowed for them to use household glassware from the cupboard and ordinary bread so if the government broke into a home they would see wine and bread and not be alarmed. After the Mass the plate and the glass would have to be destroyed and buried properly. It was a difficult time to be a Catholic and a priest.

Reading the life of this priest you can see that the circumstances didn't bother him. He went about dispensing the Sacraments and helping people by Baptizing them, hearing Confessions, Anointing the Sick, offering Mass, and uniting couples in Holy Matrimony. He did all of this while the government was against religion. Many times he had a scrape with the law. Once he understood that they wanted to put him in the main jail. So he dressed up in one of his many disguises and went into the main prison. He made it all through the jail and back out again. The government had him but then again they didn't. He offered Mass once in a home and was alerted that the police were coming to look for him. He escaped and the police came in looking for Father Pro. He returned quickly wearing a police detective disguise and demanded that the family tell him where Father Pro was. The other police believed that Father was a police detective.

Father Pro kept his sense of humor and his mind. He was really sharp. Once when the police were right around a corner looking for him he told a woman that he was a priest and asked if she would take his arm. The police thought it was just a couple. They didn't see a priest. He kept his sense of humor because he kept his eyes on Christ. His focus was not on the political upheavals around him.

Saint Therese died in 1897 and she said that she would let fall a shower of roses from heaven. Women can understand this. Blessed Miguel Pro is for men what Saint Therese is for women. He said that when he gets to heaven it would be like winning the lottery and that he would help many of his friends. You think that the lottery is big here. It is almost a sacrament in Mexico. Even his statement has a tinge of a joke to it. You see he was shot and killed in the back of the police station in Mexico City. Today however the police station has moved and the National Lottery of Mexico now occupies that building. Father Pro has the last laugh.

Just days before he was martyred he told his friends that he would like to offer himself to God as a sacrifice to help bring to an end the terrible things going on in Mexico. God took him up on the offer. Next Friday is his feast day and next Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King, a day on which Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed in the Monstrance. You would be wise to come and adore Our Lord. It would lead to you being a witness. Focusing on Christ is the only way we will not be consumed in this valley of tears.

By your perseverance you will secure your lives

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen