Regular readers will know that I keep an eye out for anniversaries, and the coincidence of historical dates. The liturgy itself points us that way. To free us from being trapped in the present, the calendar draws our attention to saints who died on this or that day in the past, and to commemorations of the mysteries of the Lord’s life.
So a date is never just a date, but also part of the story of salvation history. Fr Dominic Allain mentioned recently in these pages that his ordination anniversary fell on June 29, the solemn feast of Peter and Paul. To be ordained on a major feast day is a blessing, but not one that I was granted. My ordination day, July 20, was set in conjunction with the 2002 World Youth Day, held in nearby Toronto. I was ordained the Saturday beforehand to coincide with the pilgrims visiting our diocese on their way to WYD. It was grand to have young pilgrims from Poland, the United Arab Emirates and Chile in our cathedral for the occasion.
Like most seminarians, I quickly consulted the calendar upon receiving news of my ordination date. Disappointment ensued: July 20 is the feast of St Apollinaris, the 1st-century martyred bishop of Ravenna, said to have been chosen by the Apostle Peter himself.
An important and impressive man no doubt, but I knew little about him and consequently had no devotion to him. There was a connection though. The university I attended in Rome was on the Piazza Sant’Apollinare; of course it was also close to the Piazza Navona and I felt no particular interest in matters nautical for that reason.
Yet as time went on I discovered several connections to July 20 which resonated in my life.
The first was that it was the death anniversary of Pope Leo XIII, for whom I have great admiration. Leo’s social vision was more penetrating than that of any other 19th-century figure, and is still relevant in the 21st, even as some of his successors’ social teaching has been overtaken by events. If Leo were ever to beatified, his likely feast day would be July 20, but he seems to have been left out of the parade of popes elevated to the altars that began with Pius IX and has included several of his successors. Nevertheless, I consider it a blessing to be ordained on the dies natalis of the father of the Church’s social doctrine, my academic specialty.
It was some years after I was ordained that I learned that the Roman Martyrology, the Church’s comprehensive book of saints, includes feast days for the principal figures of the Old Testament – Abraham, Moses, David and others. July 20 is the feast day of Elijah, the greatest of the prophets and a challenging model for priestly service. Certainly the man who remained faithful when it appeared that all had abandoned the God of Israel is a powerful intercessor for secularising times.
In my parish of Sacred Heart of Mary on Wolfe Island, Ontario, we just celebrated the centennial of our current parish church. I discovered that the official cornerstone was laid in 1916 – on July 20. I have spent three quarters of my priesthood as pastor of that parish, and July 20 marks both the beginning of my priesthood and the parish church. A pastor spends a good bit of energy on caring for his church building and all the more on the Church of living stones, of which the Lord Jesus is the cornerstone.
As part of our centennial celebrations, we were blessed with a visit from Cardinal Robert Sarah. His ordination date? July 20, 1969. I consider it an honour to share an anniversary with him. (It’s interesting to note that the other African curial cardinal, Peter Turkson, was ordained on July 20 too, in 1975.)
The day Cardinal Sarah was ordained, the entire world was occupied with celestial thoughts, if not heavenly ones. It was the day of the Apollo landing on the moon. Nothing overtly spiritual there, though the moon often represents Our Lady, and I have served my entire priesthood in Marian parishes. That’s reading too much into coincidences, as it would be to note that Apollo was a popular Greek name in the ancient world: witness Apollos in the Acts of the Apostles and St Apollinaris too.
That sort of thing can be taken too far. Yet it is fun with a serious aspect. It reminds us that all things are connected in God’s good plan, and that we are wise to seek out the connections as an invitation to trust the One who connects them all.
Fr Raymond J de Souza is a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario, and editor-in-chief of convivium.ca
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