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13 November 2004
"God our Father, You called Frances Xavier Cabrini from Italy to
serve the immigrants of America. By her example teach us concern for the
stranger, the sick, and the frustrated. By her prayers help us to see
Christ in all the men and woman we meet" (Collect).
i. It is a defined teaching of our Catholic Faith that all
human beings from every age and place
no matter their color, their language, or their cultural background
all human beings come from one set of parents. All men find a common
brotherhood in that Adam is the ultimate father of the human race with
Eve being the mother of all. This teaching
this doctrine is called MONOGENISM
and it was emphasized by no less a person than Pope Pius XII of holy
memory. In his great encyclical Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII
teaches the following: No Catholic can hold that after Adam there
existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through
natural generation from him as from the first parent of all. In short, MONOGENISM
one ultimate parent
one ultimate begetter
one main generator
must be held by all Catholics. Therefore, the Catholic must reject as
false and pernicious those theories that suggest that different races in
humanity come from different sets of parents. The theory known as
POLYGENISM
that is multiple begetters
multiple parents
a
parent to bring forth the whites, another parent that brings forth the
blacks, another the browns, etc. is to be absolutely rejected.
ii. Perverse forms of evolution include such an opinion and it is
ultimately the foundation of the sin of racism, as well as the evil of
racial superiority or inferiority. All of us ultimately come from Adam
and this makes all of us relatives in the end
children of Adam and Eve
extended siblings
brothers and sisters. And this common ancestry is the very foundation
for the Catholic Church, for the People of God, for the Mystical Body of
Christ. That is, we who are one in Adam by blood are to become children
of God the Father by grace through our oneness in the New Adam, Jesus
Christ, Who is the Child of God
the Only-Begotten of the Father.
iii. Sin brought many evils, especially the loss of grace and our
being separated from God. But is also brought another evil, namely
divisions amongst men
a
Babel mentality complete with racism, Xenophobia
fear of foreigners
ethnic hatreds
extreme nationalism or chauvinism
and conflict. In a sense, every war fought since the fall of man is a
Civil War
from the Pelopponesian Wars
to the 100 Years War
to World War I and World War II
these are all Civil Wars, really, wars, battles between brothers in the
flesh.
iv. Certainly Christ's mission included paying the price for sin
and ending the separation between God and mankind. But His mission also
included ending divisions amongst men, brothers
bringing all the scattered children of Adam
all of humanity into the family of the New Adam under God the Father.
The CCC #831 states: God made human nature one in the beginning and has
decreed that all His children who were scattered should be finally
gathered together as one. Christ Jesus has a Catholic Heart
a
Sacred Heart that is universal in Its reach. Consider that at the Cross
on Calvary the human family was shown
the saint in Mary, the sinner in the Magdalene
male and female
Jew and Gentile. Even our dear Lord's Cross was truly Catholic
truly Universal, for It pointed North, South, East, and West. Nothing is
beyond the reach of His Catholic Heart.
v. As our dear Lord is truly Catholic, so is His Church. Again
from the CCC #831: The character of universality which adorns the People
of God is a gift from the Lord Himself whereby the Catholic Church
ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and
all its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of His Spirit. In
today's saint, Frances Xavier Cabrini, we have a Catholic women, with a
Catholic heart universal in its love and in its reach towards all men.
Born in July of 1850, Frances was the youngest of 13. Her Catholic heart
grew in its universal love as her parents would read the lives of
missionary saints
those sent to gather the scattered children of God into one supernatural
family. Frances would dress her dolls like nuns and she would make paper
boats and float them down the river manned by violets and other flowers
representing missionaries headed off to bring the Gospel to China.
Eventually she would found the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart
and would establish houses of the order in Italy, France, Spain, and
England. But her dreams of China world not he realized. but rather work
in the Americas. As Pope Leo XIII told the young nun
NOT TO THE EAST, BUT TO THE WEST.
vi. Italian immigrants in the United States faced great
difficulties. They lived in the worst conditions and they were looked
down upon
discriminated against
they were labeled as wops, dagos, white niggers
again we see the horror of ethnic hatred, Xenophobia, and racism. But
St. Frances Cabrini would be a mother to them establishing schools,
orphanages, and hospitals. Frances would establish the presence of her
missionaries in New Orleans, Denver, New York, Chicago, and elsewhere.
But her Catholic heart reached beyond any particular ethnic group. She
would found houses in Central and South America, though her Spanish was
poor, even nonexistent. She was a mother to all and she truly made the
world smaller. Frances Xavier Cabrini crossed the Atlantic Ocean 25
times in her efforts to unite all men in Christ. She once said to her
sisters: The world is only a small ball for the Missionary Sisters. See
how the Infant Savior holds it in His hands. Although she realized her
ultimate citizenship was in heaven, Frances become a citizen of the
United States and is the first canonized citizen of our nation. St
Francis Xavier Cabrini was born into heaven on December 22. 1917.
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