He Did Ordinary Things in an Extraordinary Way Homily for Archdiocesan Celebration of 200th Birthday of St. John Neumann St. Alphonsus Church, Baltimore, MD By Rev. Patrick Woods, C.Ss.R. Having just celebrated the feast of another great saint of the Church, and with my bearing the same name as the Patron of Ireland, I often go the St. Patrick s Day Parade in New York City. Among the many popular buttons that I see people wearing on their green outfits is one that reads, St. Patrick was a Saint; I ain t. I suppose the button refers the over-celebrating that the wearer may be planning. We sometimes say about someone, usually a woman married to a difficult man, That woman was a saint to put up with him all those years. Perhaps, someone is very kind to you in a very difficult period of your life. You may well say to the person, You are really a saint. When we think of saints, we visualize many of the beautiful statues that we have seen since we were children, or some of the paintings in our homes or churches. We may think of halos, miracles, and great achievements done for the Lord. Or we may think of St. Anthony who will help you find your lost car keys, St. Anne who will assist you in finding a man, St. Joseph who might help us sell our house if we bury him upside down in the yard, or St. Jude if we have a hopeless concern. Yet, there are many saints of the Catholic Church who were men and women not very different from any one of us. In response to God s grace, they did their best to love God and to love their neighbor. Isn t that what all of us Catholics, whether we be priest, religious or lay person are supposed to do with the life God has given us. It may surprise you to hear me say that we are called to be saints, to love God and our neighbor in response for his great love for each one of us. St. John Neumann is a saint. Still, he had many of the very same human experiences that all of us have. When he came to America to serve as a priest, he found he did not like mosquitoes. Listen to what he wrote home to his family about these pesky creatures who bother us so much: Their bite produces a violent swelling and causes the greatest suffering to man and beast. I was annoyed when I was preaching and hearers would fight them off by resounding blows. As a boy, John often wanted to play rather than go to Church with his mother: he writes, In my case there was needed at times the promise of a penny or something similar to bring me to Mass, the rosary or the Stations of the Cross. When someone teased him as a young man about a particular girl, he said, That girl occupies my thoughts no more than any other woman. To me they are all beautifully bound books which I know not how to read. When one reads the letters of St. John Neumann, he often writes about his homesickness and how he misses his homeland of what is now the Czech Republic. John dreamed of being a doctor, but when he found that he could enter the seminary and become a missionary to America, he gave up that desire in response to the promptings of God and his own good mother. A few years ago, the news media reported what they thought was a shocking story: Mother Theresa of Calcutta had times in her life when she experienced periods of great darkness in life and these times made faith a struggle for her. In spite of these periods of spiritual questions and doubts, she continued to love and serve the poor since she saw
them as the face of Jesus Christ. When I read this, I was far more consoled than surprised. If a woman whom the whole world recognized as a saint could have difficult times in her spiritual life, it gave me great hope and comfort in my own journey. Similarly, one of the greatest and most popular saints of the Catholic Church, St. Therese of Lisieux, experienced such waves of spiritual doubts that her own blood sisters feared that she could take her own life. Yet, as she drew her last breath on earth, dying painfully of tuberculosis, she said, All is grace. We see similar struggles in our dear St. John Neumann. Listen to what he wrote as a young man in the seminary: There is a terrible void in my soul; I am completely discouraged. I cannot pray. To whom shall I turn for help? Pride and unbelief, animal and devilish desires want to engulf and torture my abandoned soul. I want to be free from my torturing doubts. A saint wrote these words. So, if you have your moments of doubt, questions and struggles to know God and his will for you, if you feel overwhelmed and filled with temptations to sin, you are following the path of a great saint of our Church, St. John Neumann. John Neumann tells a story in his journal about finding it difficult as a seminarian to prepare homilies. Once, when he was giving a practice homily to his classmates, his mind went totally blank and he had to leave the pulpit to his great embarrassment. He told his classmates a simple lie about why he had failed. Even a saint can fail and seek the mercy of God and start again. I love the humanity of this good man that our Church has canonized. How did St. John overcome these spiritual hurdles that were wearing him down? He surrendered in trust to God. Listen to what he writes about this moment: I stand before you my Savior. You have not spurned my sincere offer to become your obedient disciple. I no longer look for comfort from either heaven or earth. You divine Master can judge whether such are necessary for me. I propose to worry no more about my spiritual struggles. You my God are the font of grace. I am grateful to you for letting me learn this. We often see the bumper sticker, or hear someone say, Let Go and Let God. John Neumann s surrender of his will in a complete act of trust to the Lord was a key moment of his life and enabled him to go forth and do great things for God. Like us, St. John Neumann faced biting mosquitoes, as a boy had to be bribed to go to Church devotions, failures, loneliness and even struggles in faith. He is our brother. When it was proposed that the process for canonization of John Neumann begin, there were those in the Church who wondered if his life was too ordinary. He did not seem to work great miracles, found a religious order, write great books, or die the death of martyr. The pope at the time, Pope Benedict XV wrote the following as he reflected on the life of John Neumann: No one any longer should doubt that the simplicity of work performed by John Neumann did not prevent him from a marvelous example. His very simplicity moves to see a new hero and example of faith not difficult for us to imitate. These words of the Holy Father remind us one does not have to do great works to be a saint. I remember one of my teachers in the seminary, many years ago, told us that St. John Neumann did ordinary things in any extraordinary way. We think of the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ. The one who is faithful in small things shall be greatly rewarded in the kingdom of God. St. John Neumann was a man of flesh and blood, who lived in the very rectory of this beautiful parish. You can still see his simple room to this day. He walked these neighborhoods as he sought to bring the comfort of the Good News to all in need. St John wrote this about Baltimore when he wrote home to his family: It often gets very hot here in the summer and it frequently storms. Sea breezes do not cool off the heat and fever prevails especially among recent immigrants not yet accustomed to the air and different food. I wonder if St. John ever developed a taste for one of God s greatest gifts: crabs and beer. Yet, as I think about the life of St. John Neumann, I do think God accomplished extraordinary works through this humble saint. He was able to painfully say farewell to his family, leave the home and country he loved, and journey to America as a missionary to a new land. When he arrived in New York, he had one dollar in his wallet. He was ordained a priest by the then Diocese of New York and sent all over New York State to visit the many German immigrants who were pouring into the United States. He traveled by boat, horse, and on foot as he traveled up to the areas near Lake Erie and Buffalo. He wrote home excitedly to his family about the wonder of the Niagara Falls. He struggled to form the immigrants into communities; his greatest love was teaching little children. After a time, John Neumann decided to join the Redemptorist community. He had met the Redemptorists Fathers and Brothers in Rochester and was immediately attracted to their style of preaching, prayer, and community life. Our saint sought the support of other men like himself and thus joined the Redemptorists. He was the first man to be professed a Redemptorist in North America. One of the confreres joked: A new man for the Congregation. John made his novitiate here in Baltimore and was soon ministering at St James Parish as an assistant pastor. Although St. John was a most humble man, and had only been a Redemptorist only five years, he was soon made superior of all the Redemptorists in North America. As superior, St. John was constantly receiving requests for the service of the Redemptorists to serve the German immigrants. The confreres were scattered all over the Eastern United States and managing their growing numbers had its challenges. When John Neumann wrote about his years as superior, this is what he said, I sometimes think my greatest accomplishment during my time as superior was not so much in the work I did for my own community, but in the way I was able to help women religious so vital to the life of the Church in America. Our saint was most helpful in establishing the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Baltimore and had them teaching here at St. Alphonsus, at St. James, and at St. Michael s. Recognizing the great gift of women religious to the America Church was a pattern that we would continue to see in John Neumann all his life. He was most helpful in the founding of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis and supported the Oblate Sisters of Providence when they were in a time of particular crisis. We know that it was heroic women religious who were so essential in building the American Church. The Archbishop of Baltimore, Archbishop Kenrick went to confession regularly to John Neumann here at St. Alphonsus. One day, when John came to his room after being out, he found a pectoral cross and ring on the dresser in his bedroom. The archbishop had
come to recognize the holiness and apostolic zeal of John Neumann and had proposed his name to Pope Pius IX for consideration to be Bishop of Philadelphia. This thought filled John Neumann with fear and anxiety. The prospect of being the Bishop of Philadelphia frightened our humble saint. Yet, in 1852, when the Holy Father appointed him the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia, Saint John Neumann surrendered in trust to God and accepted this new mission as the will of God. Bishop Neumann was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop Francis Kenrick here at St. Alphonsus Church on this very day, March 28, 1852. On his ordination day, John Neumann sat in the very chair that Archbishop O Brien is sitting in today. March 28 was also the birthday of the saint as he was born in 1811. Bishop Neumann served as Bishop of Philadelphia from 1852 until his sudden death in 1860. As bishop of a very large and growing diocese, he faced many challenges: the pastoral care of the thousands of immigrants who were coming into his diocese from all over Europe, the concern that there was a serious prejudice against Catholics that made it difficult for the children of immigrants to learn their faith, and many Catholics were in great need of spiritual nourishment. It strikes me that the issues that St. John Neumann faced are similar to the challenges our Catholic faith faces today in America. Churches were burned and Catholics threatened by those who feared the wave of immigrants that were coming to our land. Today, we are very free and safe to practice our faith. Yet, our culture is one that makes light of religion. How often we see the Catholic faith attacked in the media, in television and the movies. As Bishop of Philadelphia, with the great help of women religious, he was determined to provide for the Catholic education of the children of his diocese. He began the Catholic School system as we know it; I am sure like many of you, I owe a deep debt of gratitude for what I was given in Catholic School. Today, we face many challenges in educating our young. We fear that our children are being captured by a very secular age. We look to the example of St. John Neumann and pray for the courage and fortitude to continue to provide Catholic schools, religious education programs, and most importantly the sharing of our faith with our children at home. The Catholic education of our children was always a key priority of St. John Neumann. John Neumann was an immigrant to America. He came here to work with immigrants who were pouring into the United States in the 1840 s and 1850 s. Being Irish, one of my favorite stories of St. John is that he learned Gaelic, the original language of the Irish to hear confessions of the Irish immigrants who still spoke that language. One Irishman who went to confession to St. John left the confessional saying, Thank God we at last have an Irish Bishop. The saint spoke several languages to assist him in caring for the immigrants; the only thing familiar to the immigrants when they came to America was the Church. In St. John they found a dear friend, an immigrant himself, who spoke with a foreign accent. We know today how immigration is still a major issue in the United States. It is a very complicated question beyond the capacity of this sermon. We can be proud that our Catholic leadership is working to ensure immigrants are treated fairly and that great
efforts are made to care for them pastorally. I think of the new initiative that Archbishop O Brien and the Archdiocese is beginning at Sacred Heart parish along with the Redemptorists to serve the new generations of immigrants to our land. It is easy for any one of us to fall into an attitude of fear of the immigrants and even resentment. Yet, in truth almost every one of us in this beautiful church today has ancestors who came here to America from other lands. Let us look to St. John as an inspiration so as not to close our heart to these new people to our land. I have no doubt that St. John is happy that Monsignor Bastress has opened the doors of this church to the Lithuanian community. St. John Neumann loved the Holy Eucharist and developed what we have come to know as Forty Hours devotions. When his advisors warned him that exposing the Eucharist in the churches might bring forth danger from the anti-catholics of the time, John Neumann insisted on the importance of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Today, many parishes are re-discovering Forty Hours devotion, Eucharistic adoration and perpetual adoration. Bishop John Neumann died suddenly on January 5, 1860 as he was running an errand. In his journal, on the day of his of death he wrote: I have a strange feeling today. I feel as I have never felt before. A man must be ready, for death comes when and where God wills it. You know neither the time nor the place or whether you will die suddenly or after a painful death. When death came a few hours later, we know that our beloved saint was well-prepared to meet the living God. This is a final lesson from our saint, Live each day of your life as a gift from God, in service to him, to those you love, to those in need. That is what makes a saint. We pray for the intercession of St. John Neumann that we can follow him on the same path to God and be ready whenever we are called home.