Three Confraternity of Penitents' Pledges

The Confraternity of Penitents rejoices greatly in the year pledge of Sandy Lewis and the life pledges of Lucy Fernandez and Aimee Fleming. The following homily by Father Jacob Meyer, Visitor, was given during the Mass of Life Pledging for Aimee Fleming on August 24, 2014. 

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ. (Matthew 16:13-20)

I really like this Gospel as it is about bringing joy to people. It is my favorite text in all of Scripture and I am preaching on it from a high pulpit in this beautiful church to all you blessed people on this wondrous occasion on which a penitent is about to make a precious act of love in the giving of herself, in making of herself and her labors, a gift to Jesus. We are all invited into the mystery of Christ today, into the mystery of God’s power today, the mystery at the heart of the Church. The power of God is here.

Sandy Lewis making her pledge to live the Confraternity of Penitents Rule for one year to celebrant Father George Nixon at CFP Retreat 2014. Date: July 25, 2014

When our Lord ascended into heaven, He left to all of us His power in the Church, power to transform the world. The task is not done! We aren’t finished! There will be an end, but, until then, we must make God’s power felt. The power is the power of the greatest sacrifice of love.

When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” they had all sorts of answers. Then He asked them, “But who do YOU say that I am?” Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then Jesus does the unbelievable. He tells Peter that whatever he loses on earth, God will lose in heaven and whatever he binds on earth, God will bind in heaven. This is unbelievable power which God is sharing with us. Each pope is not the successor of the previous pope. He is the successor of Jesus. People say, “Oh, no. That can’t be true. Why would God share this power with a human being? Bind on earth. Bound in heaven? Loose on earth. Loosed in heaven?” People say that the Pope does not have the power. But Who gave the power? The One Who had it in the first place. 

Jesus encountered this Himself. “Who but God can forgive sins?” the people asked Him. Only God, yes. But God gives this power to the priest. Amazing power not to lord it over people but to love them. Jesus held nothing back on the cross. He gave His whole self, His whole divinity, His whole humanity, His entire Will. We must spread this message that He held nothing back! We know Christ’s love. We have indulgences to take away the temporal punishment for sin, for example. People say, “How can this be?” Because God loves us so much that He gives us loopholes. Loopholes! God will not stop loving. He will not stop at doing what is fair. He suspends His justice so that we wretched sinners can get to heaven due to His mercy. Who would do this? No one but God! God becomes so trusting, so humble, so simple, so merciful. We can’t understand this because of our fall from grace. Our human nature seeks after power, lusts for power, and we can’t understand a God Who would have the power and give it up to Peter, to His successors, to the Church! 

Lucy Fernandez signing her pledge to live the Confraternity of Penitents Rule for life, at Christ the King Retreat Center, East Aurora NY, during CFP Retreat 2014. Father George Nixon accepted this pledge on July 26, 2014.

Think. We can participate in the power of love. We can participate in the power of loosing and binding. As we loose ourselves from the things of this world, we bind ourselves more securely to God. The Confraternity of Penitents is a witness to the power of the Cross. We make up in ourselves, in our sacrifices, in our prayers, in our fasting and abstinence, in our works of mercy, in our simple clothes and life style—we help make up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ! I have no idea what St. Paul meant when he wrote that, but I believe it. I think this life of penance is part of the mystery. As we separate ourselves from the world, as we are in the world but not of the world, we open ourselves more to entering into eternal life. With great joy, we give God our life.

A lot of people think that my favorite passage in the Scripture just read is the one about Peter and building God’s Church on the rock of Peter and God giving His power to Peter and his successors, that all people who come to salvation come through the Church, even if they don’t know the Church, even if they don’t know Jesus. But that’s not my most favorite passage. That’s my second most favorite passage. 

My most favorite passage is that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Brothers and sisters, we are here in this time and we see satan’s attack against the Church. It’s been going on far too many centuries. It has been going on for all time. How can we hold on? We do penance! We give away what seems to be our fullness and are filled with the fullness of God. We fast because we rely on God for our strength. We pray so that God fills our time. We don’t fight this endless battle with swords and spears but with love, with the Rosary, so that God’s love will prevail.

Aimee Fleming following her pledge to live the Confraternity of Penitents Rule for life, pledge made to Father Jacob Meyerm CFP Visitor, August 24, 2014, at Our Lady of the Angels Oratory (formerly St. Andrew's Church), Fort Wayne Indiana. Pictured here with Father Jacob are the four life pledged members at this event (Jim Nugent, Madeline Pecora Nugent, Aimee Fleming, Lucy Fernandez).

Today we celebrate the embracing of the Franciscan life style. Saint Francis was so much like Christ that he called all the world to be like Christ, too, and all the world loves him. I have non Catholic friends who have a Francis birdbath in their gardens. They don’t know much about Francis but they love him, maybe not for the right reasons (Francis was not all about birds, I know) but they know he had an affinity for Jesus, that he was different and simple and loving and poor. And so they love him, even if that is all they know about Francis. The world recognizes the language of love and sacrifice. Your job as penitents, who life your Rule of Life for life, is to bring that message to the world, to lose yourselves for the world to bring the world, even kicking and screaming if needed, to heaven. Every soul you meet is one to bring to the Father.   

--Father Jacob Meyer, Visitor