Sermon by Fr. Kazimierz Wójtowicz, Vice Postulator General of the Congregation, during the central thanksgiving celebrations for the proclamation by Pope Francis of the heroic virtues of Fr. Paweł Smolikowski. Krakow, Church of the Resurrection of the Lord at Łobzowska Street 12, February 21, 2018.
Jon 3:1-10
Lk 11:29-32
Dear Bishop Jan,
Honorable Father Provincial,
Dear Brothers Priests according to offices and dignities,
Dear Sisters according to nominations and affiliations,
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
We already know why we have gathered here and why there are so many of us. It is a joint thanksgiving for the life and work of this man, this priest, this resurrectionist, who rests there in the vestibule, his earthly remains, the Venerable Servant of God Paweł Smolikowski. Thanksgiving also – let me remind you – for the decree on the heroic virtues, which Pope Francis signed. It is a great joy and gratitude of the Church, which is in Krakow, that is why we host the Bishop with us, that is why the Bishop celebrates this occasion with us. But it is also, and perhaps above all, the joy and gratitude of the Congregation of the Resurrectionists, that is why higher superiors are with us, general councilors, provincial and the rest, because on this land, within these walls, the holiness of one of ours was realized, as it is briefly said, holiness which received solemn papal confirmation.
And today, thanking God for this holy life, we want to reflect on it to extract for us some moments that could and should be imitated, or as the Provincial Father said, tuned to our lives, moments that may be an inspiration, motivation, model for us, or perhaps even embarrassment... who knows what?
And the word of God from both readings is homogeneous today: it "revolves" around the prophet Jonah. This minor prophet must be an important link in the chain of salvific events, since the Lord Jesus himself – in response to the insistent question, the insistent demand for a miracle from the listeners – solemnly declares that "no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah."
We must therefore break down this sign into "first factors" – by the way, I managed to extract six such – so that we realize what content it carries and how this biblical parable fits on one hand to the Venerable Servant of God Paweł, and on the other hand to each of us, to each resurrectionist and to each Christian; I will say right away: it should be our sign (another thing is whether everyone looks good in it).
1. The Lord spoke a second time: the sign of calling and the new man
In the first reading, we meet Jonah after fleeing from God's destiny and after the adventure with the great fish. Spat out on the shore, the Lord caught him again, bringing not only salvation but also a renewed call, seemingly the same, but not the same.
It was similar with the Venerable Servant Paweł. Born in 1849, far from Warsaw, through various vicissitudes and fates related to his father's work, who was a sought-after railway engineer, he eventually found himself in the capital; at the age of 17, he entered the seminary in Warsaw. As he writes himself: "The desire to dedicate myself to the clerical state persisted, and even though unclear, the ideal of a monk stood before me... (And now I apologize to the Bishop, because something will be about him). In my entire dream about my calling, it never crossed my mind to become a bishop or hold any church dignity, on the contrary, I excluded all that. The ideal I adhered to was a monk, being (and now attention) under complete obedience and in complete poverty, in continuous missionary work." And this is written by a man who was to take perpetual vows, who was just beginning the path of priesthood and missionary work. When after a year, in 1867, he joined the Resurrectionists, he heard from God as if a second – as it was with Jonah – call: arise and go to the great city, to Rome. And he went.
Also, each of us was called, invited "to perfect the Christian life by imitating Christ, so that we may live, die, and rise with Him," as our Constitutions say, we know this by heart (6), so that each of us, whether a monk, layperson, bishop, or cleric, would be a new man, because everyone can be holy, as beautifully sung by Arka Noego:
"Such a big one, such a small one can be a Saint
Such a fat one, such a thin one can be a Saint
Such as me and such as you can be a Saint.
This is the first sign, and there are six of them."
2. Arise, go to Nineveh: the missionary sign
Jonah is an unusual prophet. Please note that only he was sent to the great city, exceptionally wicked and godless. He was sent straight to the pagans to save them from ruin and to proclaim to them the call to conversion and the threat of destruction. He does not seek special words, he speaks simple words and repeats the same thing all day: repent and do penance, because soon it will be the end for you. But in fact, he brings closer the truth about a gentle and merciful God, good and patient, loving and forgiving.
My dear ones.
This missionary nature of God's economy of salvation clearly comes to the fore in the life of the Venerable Servant of God. After studies and perpetual vows, he was ordained in 1873 in the Greek-Slavonic rite. In the archive, there is a letter addressed to the then General, in which he outlines in 6 points "the benefits of being ordained now in the Eastern rite." (That is why we have two here dressed in Eastern robes). At the same time, he was so determined to accept this rite and wrote that if the Congregation did not allow the transition, he "was ready to wait even a couple of years for ordination." But in the same sentence, he added: "if the Reverend Father General allows it." And this is the whole Paweł – a man who "gave God his feelings, his thoughts, his will." And he went with the Gospel and Christ first – as we heard – to the Bulgarian nation, where he spent 8 years, and then to the Ukrainian or Ruthenian nation, where he worked for 9 years.
My dear ones.
Also, each of us is called to this – as Pope Francis says – to "open our eyes and remember what God called us to, namely to consistently set out on the road — naturally after coming out of ourselves — to share the Savior with those who are still waiting for Him, groping for Him, and to meet Him in the poor, suffering, lonely, despised, or life-lost." This is what the Pope says. And this was the second sign.
3. He went and proclaimed: the prophetic sign
In the Holy Book the mission of Jonah is described very succinctly with three verbs: he went, called, and proclaimed what the Lord commanded him. It means that going he wanted to reach, he did not wait for others to come, he wanted to reach everyone, called, meaning he spoke loudly, with all his might, so that everyone would hear, proclaimed, meaning he spoke in such a way that everyone would understand and want to accept the word.
Did not our Venerable Servant of God do similarly? We heard in the lectures that he carried the Word of God by voice and pen: he preached sermons and conferences: he preached them to collegiates, clerics, and novices, for nuns and priests. He wrote wonderful "Meditations with the Lord Christ"; he taught meditation, and actually spoke to Jesus in such a way, asking Him: "You teach me this, because it was not some beautiful theory, but a true partnership with You." Nicely said: partnership with the Lord Jesus. He preached the Word of God – like a prophet – in season and out of season, always remembering, as our Constitutions say, that it must first shape the life of the preacher, and then only admonish, instruct, point out errors, and uplift others (cf. Constitutions, 216).
My dear ones.
We baptized are also prophets, we fulfill the prophetic mission, that is, the teaching mission, mainly through testimony. Today, witnesses are more often sought than teachers. Because a true apostle seeks every, even the smallest opportunity, to proclaim Christ in word and deed, as best he can, as long as he has strength and skills. That was the third sign.
4. They turned from their evil ways: the sign of conversion
Jonah – like no other prophet in history – can boast of an unprecedented success. Imagine, here at his feet Nineveh, a pagan city moloch (spanning 3 days' journey) and imagine one day of work, decent work, and the result is written in faith, fasting, penance, and ashes! Indeed, the prophet's mini-sermon was supported by the king's decree that everyone turn from their evil ways and from the injustice they commit with their hands. Moreover, even animals, cattle, and herds were included in this otherwise dramatic and spectacular process of penance. And this is the effect of the word, the simple prophetic word. Conversion.
The Venerable Servant of God being himself a clear sign of conversion, because the practice of life confirmed in him the ideals of evangelical counsels and fidelity to the spirit of the congregation, served zealously in the confessional, also in the one that stands there at the back (there were two, now only one remains) and willingly served as a spiritual director to great people and saints (including Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz from Lviv and Adam Stefan Sapieha) and taught that: "The most dangerous thing in spiritual life is indifference." And he added: "More dangerous than sin."
Our Congregation's Constitutions emphasize, that participation in the life of the Lord Jesus, in the divine life, begins with conversion, and they add that it is not some static reality, but dynamic, that it is a process lasting a lifetime (from the cradle, but there in the cradle no one knows anything about conversion, it should be said: from vows to the grave) (1). Dying and rising or rising to new life – being in baptism the sacramental beginning – in religious consecration becomes a voluntarily chosen project, or rather better said: a life program. And that was the fourth sign.
5. And God relented: the sign of God's love
Although Jonah did not shine with fiery speeches, but repeated the same thing over and over: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jn 3:4), the Ninevites were moved by his words: they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Their contrition and penance caused God not to execute the announced punishment. In this way, Jonah became a "carrier," a sign of God's forgiveness and mercy.
Such a "carrier" of mercy and God's love was our humble Venerable Servant of God Paweł, who being the long-time (30 years) rector of the Pontifical Polish College in Rome, had a significant role in the education of many outstanding clergymen, blessed and saints (St. Józef Sebastian Pelczar, St. Józef Bilczewski, Blessed Jan Balicki, Blessed Franciszek Rosłaniec, Blessed Władysław Góral; Cardinals Kakowski, Dalbor, Sapieha etc.). This can be read in various brochures. He educated and in Bulgaria and Lviv and Poland, in Italy on righteous and honest citizens and patriots, formed for priesthood and religious life.
"We are all convinced, that God's love towards us is merciful and unfailing." Faith shows us what God is, how He loved us, what He did for us. The words of the Gospel ring in our ears: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son... So God's love for us, touching our weaknesses and infirmities, can be a clear sign for everyone who possesses living eyes of faith. The poet wrote (William Blake):
"Where Kindness, Pity, Peace, Love -
There flow our prayers:
No tormented human soul
These virtues have failed.
For Kindness, Pity, Peace, Love
Is God, who rules in the world,
And Kindness, Pity, Peace, Love
Is Man - His child." (With You, therefore with Everyone, Krakow 1992, p. 179)
That was the fifth sign.
6. Something greater than Jonah: the sign of Jesus' death and resurrection
The Lord Jesus, referring to the sign of Jonah, says (also mentioning the queen of the south and Solomon), that here is something greater than Jonah. This "greater" is the sign of death and resurrection. However, it is not about exact time measures here, more about the image and the so-called type.
Our General Fr. Paul Voisin wrote aptly, who reflecting on the life of the Venerable Servant of God, found in him a true reflection of the spirit of each of our Founders:
- found in him the courageous vision of Bogdan Jański,
- found the paschal spirituality of Piotr Semenenko and
- found the missionary spirit of Hieronim Kajsiewicz.
And he writes further, that Paweł Smolikowski accepted and embodied "the spirituality of Piotr Semenenko, CR. He was the one who knew Father Piotr and personally experienced his wisdom, passion, and holiness. And delving into the history and spirituality of the Congregation allowed him to grow even more in recognizing his own misery, nothingness, and corruption and understand that they call us to turn to God and open to His unconditional love." That we may die to sin and rise to new life in God.
Thus, all of us, especially under the sign of resurrection, women and men, are a clear sign of the death and resurrection of Christ only when "the annihilation of what is sin in us and the heritage of sin, allows the deeper good hidden in the human soul to revive and be born every day." This is a quote from Saint John Paul II, from the document Redemptionis donum (10).
* * *
I think these meditations on the sign of Jonah allowed us to touch certain features of the figure and work of the Venerable Servant of God Paweł. (Not everything can be said; the rest can be read); I also think these meditations showed our own resemblance to the prophet from Nineveh. Each of us – like Jonah – sometimes finds it difficult to understand the demands and strategy of God. We all need – like Jonah – God's help, that is, salvation. We are convinced that the Venerable Servant of God Paweł is holy, that he looks at us from heaven. We trust that in the future we will become – maybe not all – witnesses of his beatification. We ask God for this and pray as fervently as we can, that this holy life, which lasted 77 years, 7 months, and 7 days, the Church may wish to elevate to the glory of the altars. Let us also beg God that we all – like the Venerable Servant of God – be a sign of calling and the new man, be a missionary sign, be a prophetic sign, be a sign of conversion, be a sign of God's love, be a sign of the death and resurrection of Jesus. These are the six signs we meditated on. May the Venerable Servant of God Paweł intercede for us with the good God in the difficulties of daily life, which no one lacks. He tells us today from above: go where our fathers went, be brave and strong, repeat: You, Lord, called me. Speed up before the finish line, because there is less and less time. And they are waiting for testimony.
Krakow, February 21, 2018
