Slouching through the woods on a dark November
day - hearing a Simon and Garfunkle song in my soul - seeing empty trees, feeling cold quiet - hearing the sound and the shuffle of dead leaves
on the hard ground beneath my feet. I have lost too many friends, Lord, and too many family members – as I walked under so many empty crosses in these cold November woods.
[Instead of a homily – for today’s feast of St. Charles
Borromeo, I spent my time reading up on the life of Charles or Carlo Borromeo –
and came up with some interesting things about his life. Here are some short bullet points.] He lived 46 years of life. I don’t know how average that was
back in his dates - 1538 to 1584. Charles Borromeo came from a name family and from money. His father was the Count of Arona. The family had
a castle on Lake Maggiore near Milan.
His mother was from the House of Medici. Charles was the third of six kids – two boys and four girls. His mother – Margherita -
died when Charles was 9. His
father – Gilberto died when Charles was around 16. He had to grow up fast. At the age of 12 he dedicated himself to the church – connecting
himself to a Benedictine Abbey. He got a good education – going to the
University of Pavia. He had a speech impediment all his life. I don’t know if this was a stammer or a
stutter. First impressions were that he
was slow – but as life went on people discovered he had a first rate mind and
gave concise clear comments. He was put in charge of the household - but continued his studies – getting a
doctorate in both civil and canon law. Like his dad he became a count. On Christmas Day, 1559 - his uncle – Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici -
became Pope Pius IV. Charles was invited to Rome to work with the Pope –
who made him a cardinal deacon then a Cardinal – and a full time adviser to the
pope – a month later. He was not a
priest yet. There he was – age 23 -
doing all kinds of administration work for his uncle the Pope. He worked
with the Knights of Malta, the Franciscans, the Carmelites. He was administering
the governing of the Vatican. When his brother died – people figured he might take over
running the family and care for its interests – possibly marry. Nope, he handed
over the family to an uncle. When he was made administrator of the church in Milan, he
decided to become a priest in 1536. He was also named archbishop of Milan – and his term was from 1564- 1584 – then Cardinal. His hand and his mind and his skills were used in lots of
different church matters – not only in Italy, but in other parts of Europe. He also played a major role in the Counter-Reformation
against the Protestants – founding seminaries and pushed for great education of
priests as well as getting them to clean up their act. 1576 – a famine hit Milan – and then a plague and he worked
big time to help the folks in this endemic.
He was in on feeding 60,000 to 70,000 people a day. He was shot at once, but the assassin missed. At 46 he caught a
fever – asked for the last sacraments – and died on November 3rd,
1584. He was canonized in 1610.
November 4, 2020
WANDERING AND
WONDERING
God, I think I know, what you do all day: you walk around and you watch!
You wander and you wonder.
You stop to watch the faces
of new born mothers and fathers with their first child – that first week they got them – laughing and loving the new adventure of parenting.
You watch kids on ferry rides – or trying their new bike – or playing their first game of cards with the adults – or sipping some beer – or taking pictures with cell phones like the adults do.
“What
is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.It is the breath of a buffalo in the
wintertime.It is as the little shadow
that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
