Fr. Franco's Letters

Shortly after Vatican II, when expectations were running high about the renewal of the Church, a Catholic liturgist said something to the effect, “The Church will not be renewed by rearranging the furniture, but only by saints.” Later this month we will celebrate the feast day for St. Philip Neri (May 26), a saint who can teach us something about renewing the Church. Born in Florence in 1515, he lived most of his life in Rome and died in 1595.

Philip lived in tumultuous times. To use Charles Dickens’ famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities, It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. The 16th century was the century of Michaelangelo and the Renaissance. It was also the century of the Protestant Reformation and the fragmenting of the Church.

The parents of Philip raised him with a lively faith and a good education. At the age of 18 he began assisting a wealthy uncle with his business. However, after experiencing a deeper conversion to the Lord, he went to Rome where he became both a tutor and religious studies student.

During this time, Philip began to lay the groundwork for his missionary work. He served the poor, ministered to prostitutes, taught youth and drew others to himself. While at prayer in the catacombs in 1545, Philp had an encounter with the Lord that radically changed him. So intense was this encounter, he begged the Lord to stop, fearing that he would die. After that event, Philip always seemed to carry with him a sense of God’s presence that was tangible even to those around him. (After his death, doctors discovered that he lived with two cracked ribs that covered over his enlarged heart.)

Philip was ordained a priest in 1551 with a desire to be a missionary in the far east. However, the Lord redirected Philip’s missionary zeal. The message was: Rome is your mission field. He stayed in Rome and gathered men around him and formed the religious community known as The Oratory.

Though not the only source of renewal in town, Philip was a particularly effective re-evangelizer of Rome. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Church was characterized by lukewarmness and corruption. By the end of the 16th century, the Church was devout and mission focused. What were St. Philip Neri’s methods?

He did several things. First, Philip sponsored weekly holy hours for priests and bishops. With the best of music (Palestrina was one of his disciples), Eucharistic adoration and preaching, the spiritual life of many of the clergy was revived. Secondly, Philip formed disciples who would eventually be ordained priests and bishops and even become cardinals. His followers upgraded the hierarchy. There was a trickledown effect throughout Rome.

Finally, Philip himself was an attractive witness for Christ. He lived simply, but did not eschew the modern conveniences and advancements of the 16th century. As a confessor, he exercised gifts of the spirit, especially words of knowledge that disclosed the heart of penitents and enabled them to get free from sin.

Philip’s most endearing character trait was joy. He was known as the saint who was always joyful. He often said, A joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one. One of his followers, who was given to fits of depression, would simply stand outside his door and experience relief.

In some ways, St. Philip Neri is a saint for our tumultuous times. And like St. Philip, our mission field is near at hand. We do not have to travel to the ends of the earth. The New Evangelization is about engaging our neighbors who have stopped practicing the faith. They may even be in our own households. We are tasked with bringing the person of Jesus Christ in a compelling way to the people around us that somehow breaks through their religious apathy and cynicism.

Like St. Philip, we need to be open to the gifts and movements of the Holy Spirit as well as the tools our technological culture gives us. And, as in St. Philip’s time, we need to make use of music that can engage listeners and draw them back to God.

Finally, we need to manifest the joy of the Lord in our daily lives. Amid the stresses of our time and relentless predictions of impending catastrophes, we know who we are, why we are here and where we are going. Like St. Philip Neri, the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Our confidence is Jesus Christ. We need to live with joy in the Lord.

Pope Francis has selected a theme for this Jubilee Year: Hope does not disappoint. This is a portion of Romans 5:5. The full passage reads:

and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us