Alessandro Freccero becomes a priest in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption
Savona. Last Saturday afternoon in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, the Capuchin minor friar Alessandro Freccero was ordained a priest by Bishop Calogero Marino. Originally from Savona, Father Freccero belongs to the Franciscan community of the Province of Genoa and to the fraternity of the Convent of San Francesco d’Assisi, at Villetta. The new priest presided over his first mass yesterday morning in the Capuchin church.
“The manifestation of fidelity to the Lord has accompanied you throughout your life – said Monsignor Marino during the homily of the ordination mass, addressing the friar – It is beautiful to give thanks to the Lord in the grateful memory of his love, of his action as king! In today’s passage from the Gospel according to Mark (Mk 4,26-34) the first parable of Jesus speaks to us of a healthy unawareness that characterizes an authentic Christian path. There is a growth and sprouting of the seed of God in our lives without us realizing it. His work is mysterious, even in your life, Alexander: the mystery of the call does not remain entirely understandable, because not even the farmer knows the ‘path’ of his cultivated land”.
“The seed sown in you on the day of your baptism is more important than today – he continued – I don’t know you well enough yet, I will be happy to meet you, I’m sure there have been turning points in your life but, I repeat, we do not fully understand many things and we entrust them to the mysterious work of God, who works day and night, whether we are aware of it or not. ‘Your life is hidden with Christ in God!’, writes Saint Paul to the Colossians. This is the seed of your vocation.”
“The second parable helps us to understand your vocation in the Friars Minor, which consists in being the smallest of all seeds, the mustard seed, which Pope Francis also speaks about – added the bishop – Jesus takes up the text of Ezekiel (Ez 17,22-24) who exalts minority: ‘All the trees of the forest will know that I am the Lord, who humbles the high tree and exalts the low tree’. How beautiful these words are, even more so in this historical moment in which everyone is trying to excel and be on the front pages of the newspapers!
“Again, Paul, in the Letter to the Romans, invites: ‘Do not think too highly of yourselves’. The same goes for you, dear Alessandro: I know well that you can’t cope and that you experience a healthy inadequacy – Monsignor Marino said again – We are all inadequate: woe if we weren’t! Precisely when we are inadequate the Lord helps our weakness. Your Franciscan spirituality is a hospitable minority: when we are ‘major’ we are repelling, not hospitable, whereas it is in the great Franciscan tradition, particularly among the Capuchins, to welcome everyone”.
“Today the convent of Savona has a good number of friars and I am happy that you remain there – he concluded – ‘We are full of confidence and prefer to go into exile from the body and live with the Lord’, writes Saint Paul the Apostle in the Second Letter to the Corinthians (2Cor 5,6-10): dear Alexander, I invite you to be like this! The Lord does not betray his friends. Let abandonment to the Lord, ‘confiance’, as Saint Therese of Lisieux called it, lead you to give thanks to the Lord for your everyday life. This is what we all pray for you on this important day.”
