Christmas Eve

All the teachings and all the mystic experiences of Christianity are wound into the feast of Christmas, and this gets translated into Family celebrations too. Each generation holds on to what they have grown up with and share these with new members of the family -- the children, the in-laws -- even as they make new traditions that work in new times and places.

So to with the Boenzi family, transplanted from Acerra to Cerritos, via Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Bellflower.

There are many traditions, but let me just note a few.

In centuries past, Christmas Eve was a day of fast and abstinence from all meat products. This was typical on the day before every major feast. Thus, during the day of Christmas Eve, people ate very little and no meat. Then in the evening there was a supper -- a huge supper as a matter of fact. Now, how could you justify a huge meal on a fast day? The reason is that before the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar (1582), the new day was always reckoned to begin with sunset, not with midnight (who had clocks in those days besides the very wealthy?). In the Church this tradition continues on feast days when «First Vespers» marks the beginning of the new day liturgically. Well, the Neapolitan custom of the big supper goes back centuries, and so once it is dark on Christmas Eve, the fasting is finished because it is a new day.

Yet, if the meal is big, it is still meatless. There is the tradition of seven fishes or of twelve plates. Seven fishes for the seven days of creation, and twelve dishes for the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. Of the twelve dishes, then, seven would be seafood. Usually there are three salt-water fish and three fresh-water fish, and one serving of eel. Each has a symbolic value that would recall the mysteries of faith and traditions of Christian practice.

The opening dish is a seafood pasta, and for us, it is always linguine with clams. Clams are thrown into the sauce after it is brought to a boil.

Angela prepares to stir the tomato and clam sauce

For the last couple of years now, my niece Angela has prepared the sauce. She has become quite expert in this, having learned the recipe from her mother Diane, who learned it from her mother-in-law (my mother) Connie (Maria Concetta Nuzzo), who learned it from her mother Maria Zito. The sauce is a tricky one since the herbs must be just right. In the old country the clam shells are cleaned and the clams then sorted, and then they are thrown into the sauce living. The pasta will be served with the clams and shells and all. We instead buy the clams already par-boiled, and therefore there are no shells (and the cook does not feel herself to be cruel).

The pasta is the last thing to be cooked, but then you know that. Ten minutes before the guests are ready to sit down, Angela throws the pasta in the pot.

Pour a little hot water in the bowl to heat it up, empty it, and then line the bottom with sauce. Take the pasta from the colander, put it into the sauce in the bowel, as you see my brother Mario doing in these photos.  Our father taught us this trick. The reason, he used to explain, is to keep the pasta from sticking and to allow the red sauce to spread evenly on all the pasta… but one must work fast.

After filling the bowl, add more sauce, stir the pasta together. Now you are ready to serve. My brother Mario, as head of the family in southern California, does the honors of serving up the linguine.

Mario fills each plate with the first course: linguine with clams

Mario follows the tradition that he learned from my father. He asks that all the plates be brought to his place, and fills each bowl with the linguine, then hand the bowl to the first person, who then passes them on to the one whose name Mario has called. Each person may add more sauce as she or he prefers. Cheese should never be added to a pasta dish if there is seafood… this is traditional, also because in old time abstinence from meat on a fast day included abstinence from dairy products. Very few people know this today. However, the clam sauce is so favor-full that there is no need to add cheese (good job, Angela!!).

There is plenty of pasta, but be careful. Do not fill up on this. As my uncle Rudy used to quote the old proverb, “taste everything but eat nothing” (assaggia tutto; mangia niente). Why? there will be more to come, of course. This is the first of twelve dishes… but I’ll shut up for the moment, so you can enjoy the pasta.

The meal ends with a dessert which we call gli strufoli. This Christmas dessert is typical only of Naples and the towns of the old Kingdom of Napoli. It is virtually unknown in the rest of Italy, but because of the strong emigration from southern Italy to the USA, more people in America know this tradition than perhaps in Italy today.

The small, golden brown orbs of a deep-fried pasta are covered in honey and dried fruit or confetti candies… the candies represent the sparkle, and the pile of pastry orbs represent gold. Yes, of course, the gold brought by the Magi to the Christ Child. The «strufoli» are served on a platter as if they were a pile of gold, and each member of the family spoons a small portion on to his or her own plate. It is a royal treasure shared. As with all the dishes of the Neapolitan Christmas Eve supper (cena), this dish has catechetical value. Christ is the King of Heaven come to us: Come let us adore him.

Gli strufoli e le generazioni - la nonna e le nipoti

Fervent greetings for a Happy Christmas to all.

Remembering my grandfather

Yes, I have been thinking about my father’s father a lot today, but this is nothing new. I actually think about him every day… of all my grandparents, actually.

There are many incidents that I could recall about him, incidents in my own life and those that have been told to me by family members. Perhaps some day I will put all these down in writing, but today I just wanted to note a few facts.

He was born on 25 November 1893 in Acerra, the first-born of Domenico Boenzi and Rosa Cantore. He was named for his father’s father: Giuseppe Boenzi. This grandfather of his was called an industrialist, but what kind of industry could he have promoted in Acerra during the decades following the fall of the Bourbon monarchy and the unification of Italy? There were no industries as we have come to think of them, with mass production of heavy goods, not in this area of Italy at that time. There were, however, cottage industries. This was what could properly be called manufacturing, that is, hand-made goods. What goods? Anything from clothing to shoes to hats, to small furnishings… but we do not know. The fact is, our Giuseppe was cut off from the Boenzi family almost immediately, for his own father Domenico died on 4 July 1894, leaving Peppino orphaned of his father before his first birthday. Thus, he was raised by his mother’s family, and came to be known as Giuseppe Cantore, rather than Boenzi.

There are many details to tell, but I will fast-forward to 1951 when my grandfather came to California from Illinois to spend some time with us. My impressions are more visual and sensory than logical: I remember his white hair, similar in cut to my father’s black hair; his cigar; his deep voice and punctuated comments; his habit of kissing us on both cheeks or tricking us into a kiss when we were giving a hug.

Grandfather holds me and my mother holds my brother Sal 1951

The following summer my father took us to Chicago. I was not yet three-years old then, and again my memory centers more on highlights than on substance. I remember the long drive and various stops before we finally arrived in the city of my parents’ birth. We visited a whole collection of relatives on both sides of the family, but very memorable were the days we spent at the Boenzi home in Berwyn, Illinois. It is memorable because it was the first time that I ever had seen stairs… and I fell down those stairs at least four times.

This is when I met my grandmother, but of course my grandfather was a known quantity. I can remember his gruff voice but and his kind eyes behind those wire-rim glasses. When he spoke to me, it was in Neapolitan, and although I thought that I never learned the language, whenever he spoke to me, I understood… not just that summer, but into my teens.

One year later, in 1953, he drove out to Los Angeles and spent a few weeks with us. He looked for a home and bought one on Denker Street. Then my grandmother came from Chicago and they moved in. For the rest of her life she would speak of Chicago, but he seemed to like Los Angeles just fine. He was turning 60 and got a job in the garment district, working as a tailor for another 15 years.

Giuseppina & Giuseppe Boenzi in L.A. 1954

These are all facts that underline the memories. I was not thinking of my grandfather in these terms, however. I was remembering him as the hard worker that he always was -- as the family man, the professional tailor, the artist. I was thinking of the Sunday dinners with all the grandparents and how he, more than others, were interested in the news, the politics, the church, the sermons (even if he did not go to church on Sunday, he wanted to hear what the sermon had been about), the trade unions and international affairs. He would usually begin speaking in English and then switch into Neapolitan until he realized that the non-Italian spouses of my aunts and uncles were trying to keep up with the conversation. Then he would blush, and immediately switch back to English.

It was a struggle. Often I heard him say at the end of a statement: “I don’t know if I made myself understood?” My grandfather Boenzi was very self-conscious that he did not have a command of the English language even after 50 years of living in the United States. “I wish that I could express myself,” he would often repeat, with a bit of desperation sounding in his voice.

At the time I thought that he was doing just fine. It was not until I moved to Italy at age 25 that I realized how much I myself wanted to say but was incapable of doing so because I lacked the words, or the proper grammar that would zing my points into the perspective that I wanted to present. Of course, now I am here in Italy for many years -- a reverse of my grandparents’ experience, but perhaps more similar than not. During these weeks as I teach courses or attend meetings of the faculty, or engage in similar experiences such as the symposium on this weekend: yes! I get my point across, but how I wish I could say it better, or in a way that people would not be distracted by the California cadence of my diction.

This is what brings Peppe Cantore to mind. He died in Bellflower on 18 April 1978, but I am still reliving many of his experiences, and wondering at the world the way it seemed to me that he did -- now from behind my wire-rim glasses. He actually understood more than he could articulate, although perhaps I am the opposite and articulate more than what I understand. Sill, I see his eyes and hear his voice play back certain phrases in my head. I can still hear his Neapolitan cadenced English exclaim: “I weesh dat I cuud espressa myself!” And I think, yeah, you and me, papa: you and me! 

Spiritual theology and its challenges

Symposium of Spiritual Theology began this afternoon at the UPS. The symposium has been planned for months to bring together theologians from a number of the pontifical and Catholic faculties in Rome, Naples, Bologna, Milano, Torino. The director of our Institute of Spiritual Theology, Jesús Manuel Garcia has been the prime organizer.

Professore Don Jesús Manuel Garcia

It was last July that I received the first notification of this symposium, but I did not receive any follow-up emails… I presume because don Garcia has a mixup of my email address in his address book. In any case, I have been able to participate, and while many of the talks are striking, I want to just put down some raw ideas that I have picked up.

The symposium is held in Sala Viganò, in the University Library

Padre Luigi Borriello, a Carmelite and professor of Spiritual Theology at the Teresianum, stressed that one of the difficulties of Spiritual Theology is that there is not one measure for speaking of spirituality. There is not one term that the Church uses, or that Christians use. There are so many models of holiness that to speak systematically of only one way will diminish everyone.

Father Borriello

In this way, Spiritual Theology is not like dogmatic theology or moral theology. These follow singular methods. It is the same with biblical, liturgical and pastoral theology. Here, instead, we are talking of lived-experience and praxis. Better, it is lived-experience in charity (I was hungry, I was thirsty…).

So there is a gap between theology and holiness. The theologian that attempted to fill the gap was Urs Von Balthassar. He speaks of mystical hagiography. You cannot talk about a saint as one who is holy before birth. It is the lived-experience, heroic effort to live the Gospel. It cannot be quietism. Every saint has a mission in the world, to people, to let them learn that God meets them where they are. There is One who is Holy, but there are many ways to respond to God in the lives of each one.

To put it another way, there is each believer must find his or her own way to live the gift of faith received. No one is a replica of someone else (this is the path to abstraction and not responsibility) but each struggles with the realities, the setbacks, the victories, the opposition to call God inside his or her life, and then to respond.

God’s action and the response of human nature; a welcoming of the divine and human effort to receive that presence. It is always subjective because they all live in different contexts, in different histories, with different personalities, weaknesses, talents, relationships, histories. Sanctity is theology lived, not theology theorized. This is the sense of Thomas who affirms, «All these words are straw». One thing is necessary, Union with God.  So we can ask, are all mystics saints? Are all saints mystics?

Interesting! Great talk. Of course, the moral theologian at the symposium did not agree because he seem to see spiritual theology as a duplication of moral theology and specifically of virtue ethics.

Fr Borriello’s response: what did John Paul II and Benedict XVI do in Assisi at a stretch of 25 years distance? They did not call dogmatic or moral theologians. They prayed with the representatives of many different faiths and religions and non-religions. They prayed together.

Someone in theology needs to offer to all those in theology an incentive to continually receive the Word, and challenge all to understand the Word better because it is lived.

Don Pier Lugi Boracco, professor of theology at the Facolta Teologica di Italia Settentrionale (FTIS), offered an interesting image of the work of Spiritual Theology. It is like a musical composition played by different orchestras and sounding very different. The musical score is legible; the sound is very different according to the abilities, tastes and so much more of each different orchestra. Still, the music is alive, also for this -- and the pleasure is that we can hear the same music interpreted in many different ways. And spirituality or holiness can be understood in this sense.

Well, my reflections, as I have said, are very raw. Do not worry: the official acts of this symposium will be published, and everyone can see the clarity of these theologians points in that final text. All that I am saying is that it is interesting to sit with these problems and thoughts and insights. 

Family feast day of Mary Immaculate

The feast of the Immaculate Conception, besides being a solemnity in the Church, is a day of remembrance for the Salesian Family, for it was on 8 December 1841 that Saint John Bosco began his work with the youth of Torino. According to his own account, this took place quite unexpectedly when a bricklayer’s apprentice wandered into the sacristy of the church of San Francesco d’Assisi that snowy morning. Don Bosco’s description is interesting. He says:

A humourous incident opened the way to put into action my project for the boys who roamed the streets of the city, especially those released from prison.

This apprentice had lost both parents and had experienced hardship and abuse. Don Bosco worked with him gently, and then reflected that if young people, even those who had been in trouble with the law …

…could find someone to befriend them, to look after them, to assist them on [Sundays and holidays], to help them get work with good employers, to visit them occasionally during the week, these young people soon forgot the past and began to mend their ways. They became good Christians and honest citizens.

Sacristy of S. Francesco d'Assisi church (Photo by Teresio Chiesa)

Well, the full story is contained in Don Bosco’s little volume, The Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales (New Rochelle: Don Bosco Media, 1989). Suffice it to say that, to this day, Salesians retell the story.

There is another important incident that took place on 8 December -- one that is equally formative for the Salesian story, I believe. On this day Francis de Sales was consecrated Bishop of Geneva. In speaking of the day of his ordination, the sainted bishop reflected:

When I was anointed bishop God took me to himself and away from my own self, and then he gave me back to my people, that is to say, he changed me from being something in my own right to being something that existed only for their sake. And so may we all be taken away from self and changed into him by the sovereign perfection of his holy love. [S. Francis de Sales, as quoted by S. Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Rabutin de Chantal, Saint Francis de Sales: a Testimony by St. Chantal, newly edited in translation with an introduction by Elisabeth Stopp (London: Faber, 1967), 55].

S. Maurizio, Thorens, where Francis was consecrated Bishop in 1602

So we remember all these vocational stories on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The day becomes a favorite day for Salesians, full of family stories. We heard a few of these stories repeated curing the liturgy today. Don Francesco Cereda, councilor for formation, celebrated with our university community, sharing teaching and spirit. The mass was joyful and festive.

Francesco Cereda presides at today's liturgy

After the mass, a reception that included the Salesians and young Cooperator Salesians… and then the banquet. In the early afternoon, as I was returning to the faculty quarters, I ran into three friends of mine  -- Polish Salesians Darek, Gabriel and Jan -- who were taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the free hours to take a trip up into the Alban Hills. Both Gabriel and Jan are here in Rome for the first time, and rightly enjoying a bit of tourism. I thought that this is also a very family way to celebrate the day of the Immaculate Conception.

Darek drives Jan and Gabriel to the mountains outside Rome