Oct 11 - St. John XXIII

+ Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in the village of Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo, in 1881. At the age of 11 he entered the seminary at Bergamo and later pursued his studies at the Pontifical Seminary in Rome. He was ordained priest in 1904. He was secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo but from 1921 onwards he served the Holy See directly in various posts, both in Rome and in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, culminating as Apostolic Nuncio to France from 1944 until 1953, when he was created cardinal and made the Patriarch of Venice.

He was elected Pope in 1958. He convoked the Roman Synod, instituted the revision of Canon Law, and called the Second Vatican Council, which opened on 11 October 1962. He died while the Council was still in session, on the evening of 3 June 1963.

Our readings today fit the feast well. St. John XXIII was a good shepherd, a very good shepherd who discerned prayerfully his place in Church history and boldly went forward to playing his role as in the mind of God the Father. The first reading tells of Ezekiel’s prophecy of the times when God would shepherd his people himself: because the time was right, the circumstances called for it, and there was really no one else more qualified to do the job.

Jesus was the first to hold such a position. The Father saw things in great disarray on the earth that he sent his own Son, to do the shepherding. Then the Son sent his best friends, the apostles and subsequent bishops to do the same, and chief among them were the successors of Peter who would be Pope.

One of the shining stars among the Pope, in Church history, is Angelo Roncalli – John the XXIII. The Church has never been the same after this pioneer in modern church governance opened the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council on this date in 1963 – of happy memory for us both! and all!

The feeding and the tending of the gospel passage was shifted into a higher more productive gear than it had been in centuries. All the trends and hopes and dreams of the past decades were now solidified and made concrete and tangible. The documents of Vatican II began to be formulated – and the contemporary Christian person called to greatness, witness and complete self-sacrifice was born.

May we today carry on the legacy of St. John XXIII. May we be apostles of joy and peace after his own example, and bound enthusiastically into each and every day God gives us to make a difference in the lives of just a few people. A few is more than we may think, for the ripple effect can cause a tidal wave of happiness and peace and hope to flood the world – which is so desperately needed as our country experience what it is like to have a godless, rouge, loose cannon for a president.

We are the light of the world! Let us beam forth joy and courage today! Amen.