Reflection
Choose and Serve
Jesus, the Stronger, breaks into the fortified house of the ‘strong man’ and liberates his possessions. We are liberated! Choose to take your place beneath the banner of the Kingdom of God. Luke adds that choice moves us to action; the ‘strong man’ is not idle.
Today, 4 feasts of saints who chose and acted for the Kingdom: St. Denis and companions of France, a Passionist priest, St. Inocencio Canoura Arnau of Spain. Both chose the Kingdom and died as martyrs. There is St. John Leonardi, a pharmacist and later a priest who died a victim of the plague contracted while serving the sick. In the earthly kingdom, he fought to heal the human fragility of sickness; losing that battle, he came to life in the Kingdom of God. And finally, a feast recently added to the liturgical calendar: St. John Henry Newman, a Doctor of the Church.
Two of our saints today have a special place in the history and spirituality of the Passionist religious community.
John Newman’s story intersects with the Passionists when he meets a Passionist priest, Dominic Barberi. Dominic was a shepherd boy who met Passionists hiding on a farm during the French Revolution.
He would be accepted into the community as a brother. Seeing his ability, he was sent to study for the priesthood and become a theologian and teacher. Dominic shared with St. Paul of the Cross, the Passionist founder, a love for England and a desire for the reunion of the Church of England with Rome. In 1842, he went to England to establish the first Passionist community. It turned out to be humble work. The little Italian dressed in his religious habit who struggled with English attracted the taunts and tomatoes of children. He never established his hoped-for dialogue with other theologians. His privilege was to welcome John Henry Newman into the Church of Rome and receive his profession of faith. Newman would speak of himself as Barberi’s ‘convert and penitent’, and his love for the Passion makes the gift of his relationship with Barberi all the more meaningful to his spirituality.
Today’s second Passionist saint is a martyr, Inocencio Arnau. He arrived in Asturias, Spain a month before being arrested while celebrating Mass with a community of 8 Brothers of the Christian Schools.
The next evening, without trial, they were taken to a cemetery and shot. This was the beginning of an unsuccessful revolution in 1934 which is the prelude to the Spanish Civil War. Asturias was a coal mining region. It became the flashpoint of the deep divide between the conservative elite, landowners, and the Catholic Church versus those proposing reforms, the socialists, the poor, and the urban workers.
Newman’s choice is a path that can be traced in how he proclaimed the Kingdom unfolds in holiness, writings, and dialogue. For Inocencio, he chose to stand beneath the banner of the Cross. He served the poor in his ministry before going to a dangerous assignment in Asturias. His service ultimately witnesses to the poor that the One who is Stronger will lay down his life in love in the battle to overcome the ‘strong one’. With faith and hope, Inocencio looked to the banner of the Cross, serving the poor.
