Episode 64 - Because by Your Holy Cross, You Have Redeemed the World

Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence> Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome back to another edition of our diocesan podcast, big City Catholics with Bishop Robert Brennan, the diocesan bishop of Brooklyn, myself, father Christopher Heu. I'd like to begin in prayer today. Our topic is regard the exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Feast Day. We celebrate this week, and a lady of sorrows, as well, will discuss Peter Claver, St. Peter Clavers, feast Day Mass, and also some of the events going on in our world and in our diocese. We remember in a particular way, of course, the repose of the soul of Monsignor Paul Jervis. We'll begin in prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. We adore you a Christ, and we praise you Speaker 2 00:00:49 Because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world, Speaker 1 00:00:53 Oh God, who willed that your only begotten son should underg grow the cross to save the human race. Grant, we pray that we who have known his mystery on earth may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. What a simple and beautiful prayer. We adore you, Christ. We praise you. No, Bishop Speaker 2 00:01:16 Indeed. And of course, we all know it so well because it's the anon that we use at the beginning of each of the stations, during the stations of the cross, and then it becomes a constant prayer throughout Lent. But this week is a special week. This podcast release is on Friday, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. But the day before, we will have celebrated the exaltation of the Holy Cross. And in both feasts, we recognize the reality of sin and evil of suffering and death. I always say Jesus didn't hand out rose-colored glasses at the last Supper of what, what we also celebrate is the triumph, the exaltation that not only in spite of the cross, but through the cross and through his resurrection, Christ has conquered sin and death forever. And you know, we live in that in-between time where we know the victory, we know the end of the story. We know that Jesus has risen. We know that we will rise with him, but we're still in this world making our way through. But it's nice when you know the end of the story, isn't it? Speaker 1 00:02:15 It is. It is. I mean, you know, when you think about in our liturgical calendar, there's a few times when there's back-to-back feast days, all Saints Day, all Souls Day, St. Monica and St. Augustine. You know, there's sort of this back-to-back reminder that we're not just covering one aspect of this, we're covering the whole picture. And, and that's sort of what happens this Thursday and Friday. We exalt the cross, but we also recognize, you know, the sorrow of the cross, the resurrection, the new life that comes, the conquering of death, but also the sorrow that we unite with our blessed mother. Right? Speaker 2 00:02:52 And we call the words of Simeon in the prophet to Mary, her great honor. You know, I, I often think of the Magnifi cut my soul, proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has done great things for me. Well, boy, yes, he has done great things for me. He gave her a privileged role, but he asked her to walk a pretty difficult road. Yeah, yeah. With her son. So saying to me and says, this sword, it'll pierce your heart. And indeed, she experiences that in a very deep way at the cross, at the foot of the cross. But she walks faithfully. Her song continues to be God has done great things for me. And that to me is the essence of real faith and of real discipleship. To recognize that even in the midst, or maybe especially in the midst of the sorrowful times, God is doing great things for us. And ultimately, his promise is resurrection. His promise is absolute triumph. The exaltation of the Holy Cross. Speaker 1 00:03:49 You know, one of my favorite hymns is Lift High the Cross. For some reason, ever since I was a young child, I, I loved that hymn. And as I grew older, and as you, you know, reflect on the words of that hymn, it's, it's hard to, you know, as, as we recognize, as following the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel, anyone who wishes to follow me must take up their cross and follow me. And when we think about the crosses of the world and the struggles of the world, and you know, in light of what's happening around the world right now, Bishop, um, there's a lot of crosses. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:04:22 Whether it be crosses of natural disaster, we heard of last week's devastating earthquake in Morocco. We don't hear an awful lot about it. Isn't it something we don't hear a lot about it on the news strange. And yet it's the death toll is staggering and the level of destruction overwhelming the fires in Maui. But only now am I really seeing some of the photos and understanding the, uh, the depth of it. I mean, we, we heard horror stories about children who are missing. So there's a lot of suffering because of natural disasters. And yet we also know there's war and violence we continue to think of, of Ukraine, and we continue to think of so many places of violence. And then the other thing Jesus tells us is followers, again, far from telling him everything's going to be all right, he tells them, you're going to suffer from my name. Speaker 2 00:05:12 And how many people in the world are suffering because of the name of Jesus, because of their fidelity to Christ and to his church. You know, we do a lot of work with people from countries in Latin America and back in their home countries. People are being persecuted, sometimes even arrested for their faith. We have a lot of priests and a good Nigerian community, and we're constantly hearing about priests, sisters and seminarians being kidnapped, all because of the name of Jesus. So yeah, there is sorrow. There's sorrow because in life we live in a finite world where there is suffering. And ultimately the exhalation of the cross. For us, the gateway into heaven is death. I mean, it's going to come our way, but behind the cross is the resurrection. We always say it. And at the same time, there's also evil. There are also the FCEs of evil. Speaker 2 00:06:07 There are also people who make evil choices. Last week I was on with Deacon Kevin McCormick, and I was talking about the then upcoming beatification of the Ulma family. That's right. And the Ulma family, they were executed by the Nazis because they were hiding their Jewish neighbors. And in the Ulma family Bible, they found underlined two passages, one from the, the Good Samaritan, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. But the other was just before, when Jesus has asked the greatest commandment, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul with and, and with all yourself. And, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And with this family, they didn't dither about it. They just knew what they had to do. They taking a great risk. And they were taking a great risk as a family. I mean, that's really a hard choice. Speaker 2 00:07:01 I mean, it's one thing to say, you know, I'm putting myself on the line, but the whole family was put on the line. And, but he knew deep down inside, but there was something he had to do. They had to do Victoria and Joseph. They couldn't turn a blind eye. You know, the reading last week was, oh, no debt to anyone except the debt to love one another. And that love sums up all the commandments. And that's what it is. It's not just the thou shalt not, but it's when you see something wrong, when you see something that you have to respond to, you go about and do it even though it may be costly. So I was thinking of them a lot this weekend, certainly because of the beatification, but the forces of evil are still out there. On Monday of this past week, I was in Queens at Breezy Point. Speaker 2 00:07:45 We commemorated a day only 22 years ago where lots of people had to make similar choices and sacrifice their life and their sacrifices of their lives. Cost not only their own life, but really devastated families. I mean, we were with people this week. We know the pain is still very, very raw among our families of people, and even in our community, because we are living in the neighborhood where it all took place right across the river from us. So, you know, you talk about the evil of Nazism, and please, God, that we won't have to make the kinds of choices the Imma family made. But people make those choices every day to put their neighbors among themselves. We think of all of our first responders who don't know what they're stepping into, but they give themselves really faithfully, generously in a regular way. And then, you know, all the innocent people, again, men and women who were going to work to care for their families. Speaker 2 00:08:38 They were making choices. They were doing what they were supposed to do, and on the way they helped each other out. And they, again, 22 years later, we look about terrible evil. But don't we see now profound good. We saw the best of people too, didn't we? Yeah. And it brought the best about this neighborhood, about us as a people, about our country. People rise up to console to help one another. So the exhalation of the cross is a reminder that yeah, evil is still, not only is it there, but it's very strong. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But as strong as it is, the power of Christ, risen from the dead is even stronger. And the power that we grasp onto when we grasp onto the cross of Jesus Christ and draw our strain from him, takes us out of ourselves and helps us to, to respond appropriately. Speaker 1 00:09:20 Beautiful. Very well said, Bishop. The readings on Monday, September 11th. And of course, you know, not that the Catholic church decides these readings years in advance. They're not specifically chosen for that day, but St. Paul's letter this Monday. That's right. And speaking of coming together, strengthening one another in love, strengthening our hearts and encouraging one another, uniting in love. And I thought, yeah, we no longer unite in despair. We do not unite in horror. We unite in love. And that was the reason why people came to mass. That's why they come to remember their loved one, because they want to be united in love, strengthening one another to recognize that good. The power of God will defeat evil and will conquer the darkness. On Speaker 2 00:10:05 Monday, you had the fire department, they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge again. I was with them Speaker 1 00:10:09 A year. They did last year, Bishop, you met the contingent of firefighters at the Brooklyn Bridge. You walked with them here to the co cathedral. This has been a tradition since the very be beginning, Speaker 2 00:10:18 And I look forward to doing that again. Speaker 1 00:10:20 But this year, this Speaker 2 00:10:21 Year I was over in Queens, so I wanted to give some attention there. And I was over at the nine 11 Memorial and Breezy Point. There were two of them. We had an interesting day. I know the men walked in the morning in a little bit of rain, right? They had the rain. Yes. And they got here. We were able to offer mass outdoors at the point, but you could see the clouds rolling in and hear the thunder in the distance. And sure enough, just as we were finishing mass, and unfortunately when we would do the memorial, we still did the memorial. They called out the names, uh, and the families presented roses. But part of that day, which is so important, is the families walking up to the memorial and having some time in quiet, in reflection and being together. And I, I was looking forward to being able to do that with people. But, uh, that's what, but you know, people are resilient. People are good. I think it was good that we could be together to pray. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:11:12 You know, Bishop, when we were talking about the struggles, the crosses of this world and the struggles that we all face, and some, as you rightly say, are natural disasters. Some are brought about by evil people, violence and acts of terrorism. But there are other struggles, of course, other crosses that we bear in terms of our own bodily sicknesses and illnesses. And I really was moved this week by the funeral of Monsignor Paul Jarvis, who 40 years a faithful priest of our diocese of Brooklyn, and had suffered greatly, really, really Speaker 2 00:11:47 The last year and a half. He did it in a very heroic and hidden way for a good part of that, maybe for almost a year. And, you know, during Lent, his sufferings became a little more visible, really just around the time of his 40th anniversary. That was around the last times that he was able to do things publicly. But he went out of that in ablaze of glory. The Vicar for Black Catholic Concerns had a dinner, and they had already planned to honor him for his 40th anniversary. And he showed up, and he was in terrible pain. I knew that he was in awful pain, but he made his way around and greeted people. And then he spoke, and he, he spoke with absolute strength and conviction. But you know what he did? He spoke about all the people who are blessings in his life. Speaker 2 00:12:36 He spoke about his different assignments, his different affiliations, and with great love just to have the Lord in the midst of his suffering. He called out the ways that the Lord blesses him over and over and over again, especially by the people who surround him. It was really one of those unforgettable moments. Wow. Something that'll stay with me. And then he was in inpatient hospice for three months, again, was a shining light to the staff at Calvary. I've always admired Calvary Hospital, their main hospital in the Bronx. And now they have a presence here in Brooklyn. But he was up in the Bronx, and he wasn't moving from there because he had experienced their loving care and the competence of his doctor there. And he said, I'm fine right here. But he was a shining light to everyone there as well. Yeah. To the staff, to the chaplains, and, you know, people who would come to visit him. Speaker 1 00:13:27 The Church of St. Francis Assisi St. Blaze was packed for his funeral mass. And a great number of priests showed. And really, for me, again, as a younger priest, to see the impact of the life of the priesthood and the lives of so many, to see the young children of the school present there too. I, I imagine, again, as you say, as we relate this back, the struggles of human suffering and sickness with the exaltation of the cross, I imagine too, that in the midst of this, in the midst of monsignor's struggles, and in his redemptive suffering that he endured at that funeral mass, you'd have to pray my prayer at the funeral mass, was that there, there would be at least one young man there to say, wow, look at the effect of this life, of the priesthood on so many. And to inspire one or two young men to consider the call to the priesthood, that in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of his great pain and struggle, that there will be some greater glory to be shown forth. And, and that's what we believe as Catholics. That's what we, we believe in redemptive suffering. We believe in that. And Monsignor Paul, as you mentioned at the funeral, mass United, his sufferings, not praying for a miracle for himself, but united his sufferings for the cause of canonization of Monsignor Quinn. You wanna talk a little bit about that? Speaker 2 00:14:47 Yeah. About a year ago, around the time of his 39th anniversary, when the cancer was starting to show itself again. And, and when he was feeling some of that pain early on, I said something rather casually about, let's get Monsignor Quinn busy on the prayers. And he said, oh, no, I'm offering up my sufferings for the good of his Cause. I did say jokingly to a few people after the mass that I suspect that he met Monsignor Quinn now face-to-face in heaven, and said to him, we're waiting on a miracle. Speaker 3 00:15:18 <laugh> <laugh>. Yeah. Tell the woods that the people in Brooklyn and Queens waiting for a miracle. Speaker 2 00:15:26 <laugh>, come on, you're busy. Speaker 1 00:15:28 Yeah. That's, that's good. But, Speaker 2 00:15:29 Um, he, he did, he offered his sufferings for that cause. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:15:34 Monsignor Quinn, who's a, a priest of our diocese of Brooklyn, who worked tirelessly here in the diocese to fight for the rights. And this would be a great opportunity, perhaps in later podcast to dedicate a conversation to the life of Monsignor Quinn. Monsignor Quinn, who founded the church here in Brooklyn of St. Peter Claver, whose Feast day we celebrated last week, and whose mass was offered here at the Co Cathedral of St. Joseph. Do you want to talk a little bit about that mast? We have Speaker 2 00:16:01 The Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver and this whole faithful, they come to a lot of diocesan events, and they're active in their parishes. So they had their mass, and then I think they had a luncheon the afterward where they celebrated their leadership and membership. But, you know, the mass was just joy filled experience. Father Alonzo Cox preached the homily, and he, I loved the image that basically that St. Peter Claver immersed himself into the life of the people in, in Cardena. He immersed himself into the life of the slaves who unjustly, who brought over and treated in despicable ways. And Peter Claver didn't stand over them in pity. He stepped into the midst of their sufferings and bore them himself, and treated people with complete dignity and respect. And as Father Cox was speaking, I was thinking, isn't that what the Lord himself did? Speaker 2 00:17:01 He entered into human history. He immersed himself, we talk a baptism of Jesus jumping in, immersing himself into the muddy waters of the Jordan River to identify with the self-proclaimed sinners. So Peter Klaver did that. He immersed himself into the sufferings of other people so that he could bring them healing or comfort. I put myself in his place, and I think it gets discouraging when you really can't do anything to change a situation. He wasn't going to turn around their health or their conditions, but he was going to walk with them. Hmm. And he was going to identify with them, and he was going to bring them the news of Christ crucified and the exaltation of his cross. Hmm. And so I often think a missionary from Brooklyn, sister Eda Ford, one of her quotes, says, let myself be vulnerable enough to say, I can't solve your problems, but I can walk with you through it, and we can think it through together. Speaker 2 00:17:59 Yeah. So that's the invitation that Father Cox gave to us in the name of Peter Claver, to be aware of those sufferings of others. And then to be willing to immerse ourselves to use the image of the immersion of baptism. Yeah. Are we willing to immerse ourself into the life and the sufferings of our neighbors? And you know, when we talk about Peter Claver and the realities, the horrible memory of slavery, but the realities even now of racism, of suffering, that what we promote are not political agendas. What we promote is human dignity. Yeah. <laugh>. And the challenge for us, no matter who we are, where we are, is to be able to look into the eyes of every person around us to see in our common humanity, that's what we all have in common humanity. And to see in that common humanity, the image and likeness of God, we've created in the image and likeness of God. And that gives every one of us a greater dignity. That's what Peter Claver saw. He didn't see poor suffering souls. He saw the image and likeness of God Speaker 1 00:18:58 In light of St. Peter Clavers example. Uh, Monsignor Bernard Quinn did the same here in our diocese by Speaker 2 00:19:06 Founding the parish in honor of St. Peter Claver. That's right. And welcoming the Black Catholics. When, you know, let's be honest, in our own church history, we can't say that everybody was always welcoming. So we know, again, we talk about the exaltation of the cross. The church is holy, not because the members are always holy. I mean, we have our history and experiences of things we're not proud of. And some of the legacy of racism is part of that history, but we also see the exaltation of the cross. And so a figure, a person like Monsignor Quinn brings out the better part of us. That's right. And reminds the whole church of the dignity of every human person. And he, he fought, I mean, I love some of the stories about Monsignor Quinn. I had known about Monsignor Quinn before I came here, but actually Monsignor Jervis did the book Biography Priest through that. Speaker 2 00:19:59 And through some of the conversations I've had with him, I, I love the story of him out in Waiting River when he built the home for the young boys. And a couple of times it was burned down by the Kku Klux Klan. And he went, after the second time he went down, he says he had fighting words. Yes. Don't even think about doing this again. <laugh>, I mean, <laugh>, it's probably stronger than that. <laugh>. I don't mean inappropriate, I just mean it probably I'll True. I I think it was something along the lines of, we'll burn back. Yes. And I don't remember exactly what it was, but I know he had strong words and he stood behind them and he prevailed. You know, goodness, we'll try him. Eventually we can draw courage from the example of somebody like Monsignor Quinn. We can examine our own conscience and our own attitudes towards other people. Speaker 2 00:20:43 We can also find courage. The other thing about Monsignor Quinn that Monsignor Jarvis drew upon was the example of the life of St. Teresa. Of Shu. Not somebody who you would first think of as a, a model for fighting against racism, but having served in the military, having served in Northwest France, he had the chance to visit <inaudible>. Monsignor Quinn was always drawn to Saint Ss, the little flower. And Monsignor Jervis had that same devotion and promoted it. And in our own communities, that devotion of Monsignor Quinn to Saint Theres is still very, very much alive. And he's still a very beloved figure in our African American community. Very much so. Speaker 1 00:21:26 I think when it all comes down to it, the Lord places in our midst great examples of people who step up to the plate and do what's needed, do what's necessary to be done, and gives us the grace, the courage, the fortitude to do it in the face of evil. Right. Speaker 2 00:21:44 Maybe even lesser challenges. Yeah. In the everyday challenges. But we can find the courage from those who faced extraordinary challenges. Speaker 1 00:21:52 Exactly. And to recognize, you know, I think in recapping our conversations today, that the struggles of our world, the crosses of our world exist, and how we struggle with them, do we struggle alone in despair? Do we struggle with one another, encouraging one another, uniting ourselves in love, uniting ourselves to God, struggling and allowing the Lord to help us to carry that cross and to recognize as we pray, that eternal life is our promise and is the promise for Monsignor as well. You Speaker 2 00:22:22 Know, another thing that I did this week, again, the podcast releases on the feast of our Lady of Sorrows. Last year on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, I was at the parish of Our Lady of Sorrows. Bishop Cisneros will be with them this year as they open a food pantry dedicated to Felix Barella, another man whose cause is under consideration. But that parish is certainly alive and steeped in the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. I was at Sacred Heart, St. Stephens on Sunday. There's an Italian parish. I think the people who originally were in that parish are from this town called Moola in Italy, in the Bowery section, I believe. And they had that this great devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. And they have this tremendous procession. So we had mass at Sacred Heart, St. Stephens, and many people who had once had roots in Sacred Heart, St. Speaker 2 00:23:11 Stephens, but now live in other places, a lot of people come back for it. I walked with them on Good Friday, but they have the sorrowful mother, and they carry her after mass through the streets of Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens up and down Court Street stopping in certain places. For me, it was so rich in culture and, and in the blending of faith and culture. And so, you know, when we look again at the heroic figures, I spoke there about the <inaudible> family, uh, and they made a stop at the police station because in their hometown, one of the stops in the procession would've been the town square. And there was no town square along the the route. So they stopped at the police station, it was very moving, and some police officers came out. Wow. Played the Stars Bangal Banner. And I thought to myself again, here we are on the eve of nine 11 and an immigrant community that's now settled in here is singing patriotic songs, counting their blessings here in this country. And then they continue on, and of course they're carrying the sorrowful mother and young girls are all dressed up looking like that image of the sorrowful mother. And they have the band and there are fireworks at the beginning and at the end. And we couched it in just between two rainstorms. Wow. I think that seems to be the theme of the week. Speaker 1 00:24:28 <laugh>. Yeah, exactly. The Speaker 2 00:24:29 End. The summer rainstorm couched in between the rainstorms. Yes. Because it had rained early on Sunday. It was fine during mass. It was beautiful during, it was actually even a little bit cooler and dry has recession, but we ended just about eight o'clock and that's when another line of showers came running in. So I was touched by again, the blending of faith and culture. And when I go to these things, whether it's with newly arrived immigrants or traditional things that we've been doing here, I'm always conscious of the young people who are there. And you know, this blending of faith and culture that don't forget who you are and from where you came. Mm. And that faith, our Catholic faith, is really what strengthened the people who came before us. It was their identification. And when you throw that out the window, you lose your grounding. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you lose your grounding. So I always compliment the young people who are present at these events where we celebrate our faith and culture because boy, and we've seen this in many times in history, when you try to eliminate faith from culture, it's like a house of cards. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:25:31 It's a very good point, Bishop. Truly. You see it. We see it in Ireland, don't we? Right. Speaker 2 00:25:36 We do. And we have the Irish Festival coming up this weekend. That's right. The great Irish Fair over at Holy Name Parish. All Speaker 1 00:25:42 Are welcome <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:25:42 So we're going to be celebrating the Irish cultures and many more to come. I'm looking forward in October to our Senior de Los Gros and, uh, Speaker 1 00:25:51 The Polish heritage. Speaker 2 00:25:52 The Polish heritage will be celebrating that here celebrated Haitian feast over the summer at at Lady Perpetual Help. Looking forward to every one of our bigger ones is Our Lady Guadalupe. But the heart of the culture really is that encounter with Jesus Christ, and that's expressed in our faith. Yeah. One of the thing, as we approach this weekend, we have a new event here at the Co Cathedral on Saturday evening. Speaker 1 00:26:16 Yes, Bishop, thanks for allowing the little plug here on Saturday, September 16th at 7:30 PM at the co cathedral we're offering for the first time outside of the Archdiocese of New York, in collaboration with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, uh, program called Catholic Underground, which has a really been a very successful event held on a Saturday evening, late in the evening, an opportunity for Eucharistic adoration, for confession, for an opportunity for praise and worship music. An an emotional time to just be with the Lord. Runs from seven 30 to eight 30, just the full hour of, of Eucharistic adoration. And then finally we'll head downstairs for live music and a social, which allows us all to kind of come together and just to enjoy the faith that unites us together. So it's primarily geared for young adults and an opportunity for young adults to come together and, and sort of be with one another and to share and, and strengthen one another in their faith. So we offer it, open it to all people, not just young adults, but particularly them as well. Very Speaker 2 00:27:20 Good. And of course, I'm going to stick on this. We look forward to October 7th when we take all of our various cultural and age groups, and we unite as the church here in Brooklyn and Queens for our Eucharist revival at Mammos Park in Coney Island, the place where the cyclones play. I look forward to that day. And we are praying for good weather. Speaker 1 00:27:40 We don't want rain to be a part of that day. No. <laugh>. It could be a part of this week, but not Speaker 2 00:27:45 That day. Yeah. In a lighthearted way. I, you talk about offering up, I'm experiencing all the rain that we're dealing with and saying good Speaker 1 00:27:52 <laugh>, Speaker 2 00:27:52 We'll deal with it in exchange for October 7th, A nice day on October 7th. Amen. Please God. Let's turn to the Lord. Remembering again the triumph of his cross over sin and death and sharing in those the mother of sorrows. We join our prayers to Mary, our Lady of Sorrows, oh God, who willed that when your son was lifted high on the cross, his mother should stand close by and share in his suffering. Granted, your church participating with the Virgin Mary in the passion of Christ, may merit a share in his resurrection who lives in reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever endeavor. Amen. Amen. The would be with you and Speaker 1 00:28:34 With your spirit, Speaker 2 00:28:34 Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Speaker 1 00:28:38 Thanks Bishop for another great conversation. Thanks to all of you for tuning into our diocesan podcast. We hope that you enjoy it and that you'll join us again next week. You can share this podcast on your social media pages and follow us at Big City Catholics on all major streaming platforms. Thank you and God bless.