Canonisation of Saint Marcellin: The homily the Pope never got to preach

In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Marcellin Champagnat, Brother Michael Green, from the Star of the Sea Province, shares with all Champagnat Marists a pearl that has been ‘hidden’ for a quarter of a century and which today comes to light. Read the whole story below, written by Brother Michael, and discover a text that reveals Champagnat’s gift to the Church.

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Marists who had the good fortune to be in Rome twenty-five years ago for the canonisation of Saint Marcellin would recall a memorable week. Extraordinarily so.  Many thousands had converged on the Eternal City, from all parts of the Marist world. Over several days, they took part in concerts, receptions, youth gatherings and celebratory liturgies; they were festooned with commemorative scarves and other memorabilia; they sang specially commissioned songs; they met together and partied. On a slightly showery Sunday morning, 18^th April, the pilgrims filled the piazza of St Peter’s to capacity to hear Pope John Paul II proclaim the sainthood of Marcellin Champagnat. A huge image of a new painting of the Founder was draped from the scaffolding that hid the façade of the basilica which was being renovated at the time. The celebrations continued well after the Mass, as the Marists took over Rome. It was a grand event.

But, unknown to all but the organisers, one of the planned activities did not go ahead.

It had been hoped that on the morning after the canonisation, there would be special papal audience for the Marist pilgrims, perhaps in the Paul VI Audience Hall where their various national groups had staged an all-singing, all-dancing concert on the previous Saturday evening. For various reasons, it was not able to be scheduled. There did end up being a Mass for everyone that morning at the basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, but it was not led by the Holy Father.

As part of the planning for the canned audience, Brother Charles Howard, the former Superior General then retired in Sydney, had been asked confidentially by the Vatican if he would ghost-write an address for the Pope to deliver to the Marist pilgrims. The draft of this address survives. It has never been published, or even known. The twenty-fifth anniversary of its non-delivery seems an appropriate time to bring it to light.

The draft has been hiding in the files of this writer since 1999. At the time, Brother Charles was based at the Provincial House of the Brothers in Sydney. Close to the Feast of St Marcellin on 6 June that same year, each of the Brothers in the community woke to find a typed note slipped under his bedroom door (a lifelong practice of Brother Charles!). It gave them some background to the draft papal address that he had prepared, and suggested that it may be useful to include in their community morning prayer.

The Brothers dutifully did as their former General had proposed, but a small community of eight Brothers was a considerably more modest assembly than the ten thousand or so Marists who might have otherwise heard Charles’ words from the Pope. A quarter of a century later, perhaps it is timely for those words to be received by a wider Marist audience.

Address that Brother Charles penned for Pope John Paul II

Today, dear friends, we celebrate a new Saint, St Marcellin Champagnat, a man who is for us a shining example of faith. At the heart of his spirituality was his faith in God’s love and in God’s continuing presence and action in his life. This was at the root of his remarkable zeal, compassion, energy, and enthusiasm. It was this which sustained him in very difficult circumstances. It was this which enabled him to continue to say ‘yes’ to God just as Mary had.

Each of us, my dear friends, has a special place in God’s heart. He writes in the life of each of us a project of love and grace, inviting us, through the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, to play our part in bringing about the reign of God.

Each one of us has a precious vocation as a disciple of Christ. As a member of the wider Marist family, I encourage you to support one another in your personal vocation, pray for one another that you be sensitive and faithful to the calls of the Holy Spirit in your lives. And pray in a special way for vocations to the Marist congregations, to religious life, and the priesthood.

A great love of Mary was one of the most important features of the life of Marcellin Champagnat. He saw a special mark of God’s love and providence in the gift of Mary in His life. His confidence in her prayers and her protection shine clearly throughout His life. Mary is model and mother for us all and we ask her to help us to be faithful to our Christian vocation, to bring Jesus to birth in the hearts of others. She is ·a model for us in opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s movement in our lives, to God’s love, and to courage and passion as disciples of Jesus. Jesus was the whole focus of Mary’s life; he is to be the focus of ours.

We are all called to continue the mission of Jesus, to bring life to others, and I know that many of you do this in the noble calling of teaching. Many of you have done this generously and wholeheartedly over many years sometimes in very difficult circumstances. I congratulate you and I thank you.

I encourage you all to be passionate in your work, be passionate in spreading the Good News by your zeal, by the witness of your lives, by giving yourselves generously in the service of others, especially the young, and, amongst the young, have a special care for the marginalised and those most in need. Be Marcellins for the young people in need, for those in search of values, for a meaning to their lives. Be Marcellins for young people in need of someone to listen to them, to encourage them, to love them. For those of you who are involved in education, never forget those words of Saint Marcellin: “To bring up a child properly, you must love him.”

Marcellin encouraged his Brothers to love one another and to love their students. His insistence on the importance of creating a spirit of family in the communities and in the schools is a wonderful legacy. To have students, teachers, staff, and parents feel at home with one another, with the knowledge of being accepted and valued whatever their role or social standing is a beautiful gift and a precious contribution to the development of people. Any educational institution with a strong spirit of family will have an evangelising impact on all that come into contact with it.

I commend you for all that you do to develop this family spirit, this sense of community, something which is vitally necessary in today’s world. Moreover, a truly Christian community will always be ready to extend its boundaries to embrace others in need, and to work for reconciliation where that is needed. I strongly encourage you in this – may you be messengers of love, of justice and of peace to the wider human family. May your institutions never become bastions of the privileged.

We know that Marcellin Champagnat was a man with a special concern for the needy and the underprivileged. He was a man rich in compassion and sensitivity towards those on the margins of society. He encouraged his Brothers to take every possible care of the poorest, the most ignorant, and the dullest children.

I urge you to follow this example of Saint Marcellin, to be men and women of solidarity. The world desperately needs a sense of brotherhood which includes a spirit of sharing where people consider it an honour to be able to devote their care and attention to the needs of their brothers and sisters in difficulty. My dear friends, we are in the second year of preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. One way in which we see this is in the selfless service of those who work alongside the outcasts and the suffering, those who work for a better world and a more just society.

I noted with joy that, in difficult social and political situations, your Brothers are encouraged to remain with the people as far as possible and I am aware that in recent years eleven of your Brothers have met with violent deaths for the witness of their faith, their Christian courage, and their fidelity to the people. You also have other Brothers living in very difficult circumstances. I reach out to these men and thank them for the witness of their lives, an encouragement for us all to be generous in our living of our faith and our commitment to solidarity as your General Chapter recommended. “This is the hour for us to accept, decisively and unequivocally, the evangelical call for solidarity”. This call to solidarity is a most important one for our time and I urge you all to be generous and audacious as you follow this call which is clearly a call of the Spirit.

My dear friends, it is easy to look at today’s world and see many negative factors that can lead to pessimism. But I believe that God is preparing a great springtime for Christianity and if we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit then we can be transformed into bold and courageous witnesses to Christ and his message. It was the Spirit who guided the apostles, it was the Spirit who led Marcellin Champagnat to be such a courageous and bold leader. The same Spirit will grant us boldness in spreading the Good News, and in bringing the love of Jesus to others through our concern, compassion, availability, and interest in their problems and needs. Encourage and strengthen one another and the Spirit will fill your hearts with love, passion and boldness. In different ways, each of us has the capacity to be bold and courageous witnesses and leaders.

Be audacious as a group also. Be a shining example of lay people and religious working together boldly in the great and arduous adventure of the evangelisation of young people and their families. With your strong family spirit you can be models of the new vision of the Church with its collaboration and partnership between all members. And together, sharing the charism of Marcellin Champagnat, you can work at providing young people with a renewed Marial spirituality. Be bold, my friends, be Marcellins for today.

Now, I would like to say a final word to the Brothers. I have noted with great joy that a good number of you have indicated your willingness to serve in difficult situations, including countries where some of your confreres have been killed in recent years. All of you, dear Brothers, are being called to heroism at this critical period in the history of your Institute. You have all been called to allow yourselves to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, to be converted, and to re-found your Institute in creative fidelity to the spirit of your Founder, Saint Marcellin Champagnat. Today we give thanks to God for the life of this great man and the inspiration that he is to us all. Let it also be a day of thanksgiving for our own life and our own calls, a time for renewal of our commitment.

In particular, I pray that you will be courageous in undertaking this refoundation which is so important for all those that you are serving now and that you will serve in the future. It is also very important for the whole Church.

To all you members of the wider Marist community, who walk with the Brothers in collaborative partnership, pray with and for them asking Mary’s special help. Encourage the Brothers to be audacious in their solidarity and in their refoundation, just as you did at your last General Chapter.

For yourselves, I pray that you will be encouraged by the witness of our Saint to see with greater clarity the dignity of your own vocation in life, your call to be joyful witnesses of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus, men and women, young and old, called to be messengers of hope in a world which hungers for a spiritual vision of life.

Marcellin Champagnat is a man who had a great love of the Church and he would rejoice to see the union that we strive for today with priests, religious and lay people, all understanding, respecting, encouraging and supporting one another in different calls of vocations, all with the common call of carrying on the mission of Jesus. Wonderful!

And now, finally, let us ask Mary, our good mother, to continue to inspire us and pray for us on our journey of faith, hope and love.