by Paulist Fr. Rich Andre
December 23, 2019

Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the 4th Sunday of Advent (Year A) on December 22, 2019 at St. Austin Parish in Austin, TX. The parish was also celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the Paulist Fathers, Servant of God Isaac Thomas Hecker, C. S. P. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Isaiah 7:10-14; Psalm 24; Romans 1:1-7; and Matthew 1:18-24.

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Today is a very special day. We celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers. As most of you know, Fr. Chuck and I are member of the Paulists, and the Paulists celebrated the very first Mass here at St. Austin on Christmas in 1908.

In these last few days of Advent, let us keep in mind the words of Isaac Hecker. He wrote: “People misinterpret when they look for solutions in a new coming of Christ. Christ has come. Christ is here now, upon the earth. Christ abides with us according to his word.”¹ For this, let us celebrate!

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When Joseph woke up from his dream, do you think he might have thought that he had imagined the whole thing? Even if Joseph was confident that his dreams were from God, they only told him a few very basic things: stick with Mary… name the child Jesus… take your family to Egypt… and later: move to Galilee.

Every once in a while in his life, Joseph may have received a clear insight from God. But I’m guessing that there were a lot of days in Joseph’s life that were more like our experience of Advent – awaiting clarity. When Joseph did not receive a definitive answer from God on the timeline he wanted, he still often had to make decisions on how best to care for his family. 

In 1819, another dreamer was born, this one in New York City: Isaac Thomas Hecker. He had an innate spirituality. When he contracted smallpox at the age of three and was not expected to live, Isaac resolutely told his mother: “I shall not die now. God has work for me in this world, and I shall live to do it.”

With such a confident start, you’d think it would have been easy for Isaac to find his way… but it wasn’t. Young Isaac couldn’t figure out what God was calling him to do. He didn’t have a formal religious upbringing. He wasn’t satisfied working in his brothers’ business. He was disillusioned by the corruption of politics. What work did God intend Hecker to do?

At the age of 22, Hecker had a vision of an angel, suffused with a moon-like glow, and his heart was filled with a sense of pure joy and love. Even after this most Joseph-like experience, Hecker still had several years of seeking in front of him, awaiting clarity. As crazy as it sounds, Hecker, with only a rudimentary education, went to two recently-established Transcendentalist communes outside of Boston. There, he rubbed shoulders, broke bread, and discussed philosophy with some of the greatest thinkers of Jacksonian America, including Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. During all his exposure to so many new ideas, it finally became clear that Hecker was called to organized religion. But to which one? Through fervent study and prayer, Isaac was as shocked as anyone to find that he was called to the Roman Catholic Church.

Soon after his baptism, Hecker joined the Redemptorists and began studying for the priesthood, even though his ongoing mystical experiences often led him away from the prescribed course of study. Shortly after ordination, he joined a Redemptorist mission team, bringing in standing-room-only crowds and attracting media attention up and down the American East Coast. He also wrote two well-received books about the faith. But despite the success of Hecker and the mission band, the Redemptorists wanted (or needed?) to break up the group to meet other ministry obligations. When Hecker went to Rome to appeal the decision, he was surprisingly expelled from the order, since his religious superiors felt that he had not received the proper permissions to travel to Rome.

This was a shock and a devastation. How could one of the most prominent American Catholics be suddenly turned away? It took seven months, but Cardinal Alessandro Barnabo, the Prefect for the Propagation of the Faith, negotiated a way for Pope Pius IX to grant Hecker and his four mission companions permission to start a new congregation while not making the Redemptorists look bad.

And that is how Isaac Hecker, feeling certain from the age of three that he was called to do a special work for God, eventually founded the Paulist Fathers 35 years later. It was not a straight path by any stretch of the imagination! 

Isaac Hecker had been a spiritual seeker for much of his life, but once he found his way, he went forward with gusto. As one contemporary wrote of Hecker’s vision and enthusiasm: “He is putting American machinery into the ancient ark and is getting ready to run her by steam.” Hecker was thoroughly Catholic and thoroughly American… which was a radically new concept. Hecker believed that the Church had gifts for the American culture, and that the American culture had gifts for the Church. The so-called “Steam Priest” founded a community of men willing to think outside the box, willing to use contemporary concepts to explain the gospel, and willing to not take themselves too seriously in the process. Such a view of Catholicism has touched the lives of millions of Americans over the past 160 years.

Coincidentally, Hecker used today’s gospel passage for his most famous homily, given on March 19, 1863.² Hecker claimed that Joseph is a great role model for each of us. And I quote:

To find God and be one with God, 
    a solitary life in the desert was not necessary to St. Joseph.  

He was in the world, and found God where he was.  
He sanctified his work by carrying God with him into the work-shop….  

Our age is not an age of martyrdom, nor an age of hermits, 
    nor a monastic age.
Although it has its martyrs, its recluses, and its monastic communities,
    these are not, and are not likely to be,
    its prevailing types of Christian perfection.

Our age lives in its busy marts, in counting-rooms, in work-shops, in homes, 
    and in the varied relations that form human society, 
    and it is into these that sanctity is to be introduced.

St. Joseph stands forth as an excellent and unsurpassed model 
    of this type of perfection.

In other words, although Joseph played a unique role in salvation history, like the rest of us, he often had to go forward without clear directions from God: praying, discerning, experimenting, rarely having absolute certainty that he was following God’s will.

When people asked Isaac Hecker about his vision for the Church and for the Paulists, he simply referred to this 1863 homily. Back then, the idea that holiness was to be pursued in the workplace and the home might have sounded surprising. Today, it doesn’t surprise us as much, thanks in part to Vatican II. Roughly twelve years ago, the Archdiocese of New York opened the cause for the canonization of Isaac Hecker. You can support Servant of God Isaac Hecker’s cause for canonization by learning more about him,³ and you can support the Paulists through your prayers, through becoming a Paulist Associate, through your financial donations, and through encouraging your friends and relatives to become Paulist priests!

When St. Joseph was a young man, he found himself in a unique role in the salvation of the world. He followed his dreams and did his best to follow God’s will. When Isaac Hecker was a young boy, he believed that God had saved him so that he could do something great in service for God. He also followed his dreams and did his best to follow God’s will.

St. Joseph and Isaac Hecker struggled their entire lives to discern the will of God. Why should it be any different for the rest of us? Often, when our prayers don’t produce definite answers, we must still choose some direction in which to strike out until we receive clarity from the Holy Spirit. So, friends, how do we live out St. Joseph’s and Isaac Hecker’s legacy today and into the future? We simply need to do five things: trust in God… pray… question… experiment… and follow our dreams.

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Footnotes