Fr. Jerome Pistoni sx
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
WEBSITE REFLECTION 20th September 2026
"Are you envious because I am good?" This the last sentence of today's Gospel and emphasizes the goodness and generosity of God that has no limits. St. Conforti, founder of the Xaverian Missionaries, experienced the generosity of the Lord in his life and expressed this joy in the famous phrase: "The Lord could not have been more benevolent towards us ”.
This phrase is found in his Testament Letter .
For Conforti, the call to missionary life is the greatest gift and a proof of God's love and providence for the Xaverian Family. It means recognizing that following Christ and being sent into the world, is an immense grace, and the joy of the call is already the reward.
This is the joy that the workers hired by the owner of the vineyard experience in this Sunday's Gospel. When the landowner calls them, they all respond with joy and work with enthusiasm even if in the end they are sad and angry because they think they are victims of an injustice because these workers do not know the ways of God:
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways."
On Sunday, September 20, 2026, I will celebrate the 45th anniversary of my priestly ordination. It was the year 1981 when, in the sports hall of the city of Parma, I was ordained a priest by Cardinal Simon Lourdusamy, together with 7 other confreres and accompanied by family, friends and many Xaverians. That moment marked the end of preparation for missionary life and the beginning of work in the Lord's vineyard. I arrived in Sierra Leone on September 3, 1992, after an experience in Spain of 8 years and a year and a half spent in London studying English.
When I arrived in Sierra Leone, after living three months in Makeni for a quick introduction to the culture of this country, I was sent to Lunsar with the Xaverians of the first hour, those who had arrived 42 years before me: Fr. Pietro Serafino Calza and Fr. Attilio Stefani. I had not yet been born when they set foot on Sierra Leonean soil! These two missionaries, so different from each other, certainly did not resemble the workers of the first hour of today's Gospel when the salary was delivered. Fr. Calza and Fr. Stefani were not angry or embittered. They were happy with the work done during their 42 years in Sierra Leone; they were not jealous because new recruits arrived to take their place but they were eager to share their missionary experience with us, young workers who arrived at the end of the day to help out in the same vineyard and continue the work they had started.
These Xaverians and many others who had arrived here before me, who ended their activity in silence, due to illness or old age, and left Sierra Leone on tiptoe, without receiving many public honours or rewards, but happy with the work done, have influenced me positively. Now the hourglass has turned upside down. Of the few Xaverians left in Sierra Leone, I am the oldest, an honour that was given to me by Father Brioni when he left Sierra Leone. Will I be able to conclude my activity with the same serenity as Fr. Calza and Fr. Stefani? Will I be able to communicate the joy of missionary life even when the new confreres begin to take my place? May Fr. Calza and Fr. Stefani give me an helping hand. Fr. Jerome Pistoni sx
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
WEBSITE REFLECTION 20th September 2026
"Are you envious because I am good?" This the last sentence of today's Gospel and emphasizes the goodness and generosity of God that has no limits. St. Conforti, founder of the Xaverian Missionaries, experienced the generosity of the Lord in his life and expressed this joy in the famous phrase: "The Lord could not have been more benevolent towards us ”.
This phrase is found in his Testament Letter .
For Conforti, the call to missionary life is the greatest gift and a proof of God's love and providence for the Xaverian Family. It means recognizing that following Christ and being sent into the world, is an immense grace, and the joy of the call is already the reward.
This is the joy that the workers hired by the owner of the vineyard experience in this Sunday's Gospel. When the landowner calls them, they all respond with joy and work with enthusiasm even if in the end they are sad and angry because they think they are victims of an injustice because these workers do not know the ways of God:
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways."
On Sunday, September 20, 2026, I will celebrate the 45th anniversary of my priestly ordination. It was the year 1981 when, in the sports hall of the city of Parma, I was ordained a priest by Cardinal Simon Lourdusamy, together with 7 other confreres and accompanied by family, friends and many Xaverians. That moment marked the end of preparation for missionary life and the beginning of work in the Lord's vineyard. I arrived in Sierra Leone on September 3, 1992, after an experience in Spain of 8 years and a year and a half spent in London studying English.
When I arrived in Sierra Leone, after living three months in Makeni for a quick introduction to the culture of this country, I was sent to Lunsar with the Xaverians of the first hour, those who had arrived 42 years before me: Fr. Pietro Serafino Calza and Fr. Attilio Stefani. I had not yet been born when they set foot on Sierra Leonean soil! These two missionaries, so different from each other, certainly did not resemble the workers of the first hour of today's Gospel when the salary was delivered. Fr. Calza and Fr. Stefani were not angry or embittered. They were happy with the work done during their 42 years in Sierra Leone; they were not jealous because new recruits arrived to take their place but they were eager to share their missionary experience with us, young workers who arrived at the end of the day to help out in the same vineyard and continue the work they had started.
These Xaverians and many others who had arrived here before me, who ended their activity in silence, due to illness or old age, and left Sierra Leone on tiptoe, without receiving many public honours or rewards, but happy with the work done, have influenced me positively. Now the hourglass has turned upside down. Of the few Xaverians left in Sierra Leone, I am the oldest, an honour that was given to me by Father Brioni when he left Sierra Leone. Will I be able to conclude my activity with the same serenity as Fr. Calza and Fr. Stefani? Will I be able to communicate the joy of missionary life even when the new confreres begin to take my place? May Fr. Calza and Fr. Stefani give me an helping hand. Fr. Jerome Pistoni sx