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| My cousin, Michael Chellel |
(Christmas 2023: This homily was given on December 25, 2023 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98:1-6; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-14.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Christmas 2023]
The day after Thanksgiving this year, the majority of the front page of the Providence Journal was devoted to an article about Santa Claus—complete with several pictures. Actually the article was not about the real Santa Claus, but about a man from Rhode Island who made a living playing Santa Claus, and who had passed away a few weeks earlier. That man was a cousin of mine, Michael Chellel.
Many people knew Michael by his stage name, Brady
White. And if they lived in Hollywood,
and worked in the movie or television industry, they probably also knew him as
“Santa-to-the-Stars”.
That’s because, in addition to his modeling work for
the Christmas catalogues of stores like Nieman Marcus, Michael played Santa
Claus at the Christmas parties of famous celebrities every year. The Journal article the other day gave a
short list of some of his many clients: Stallone, Madonna, Travolta, Clooney and Streisand. Michael once told me that he often spent
Christmas Eve at the Kardashians—which must have been very interesting, to say
the least.
The New York Times once
called my cousin “the ultimate Santa,” and I would agree with that assessment. (No bias there, of course!) He even had his beard insured by Lloyd’s of
London—that’s how seriously he took the role.
But what made Michael special to me and to a lot of other people was not
his fame and worldly success. Rather it
was his faith, and how he grew in his faith during the last two decades of his
life.
It all started on a
trip he took to Italy back in 2002.
There he heard about a Franciscan friar named Padre Pio, who was soon to
be canonized a saint. As many of us
know, Padre Pio, who died in 1968, was a priest who had extraordinary spiritual
gifts. Like St. John Vianney he
could, they say, read souls; in other words, he could sometimes tell you your
sins before you confessed them. How
would you like to go to confession to him?!!!
Count your blessings that you have Fr. Najim and Fr. Ray! He also had the stigmata: supernatural wounds
on his body that corresponded to the wounds of Jesus on the cross. If you’ve ever seen pictures or videos of
Padre Pio saying Mass, you will recall that his hands were always wrapped, and
blood could be seen coming through the wrappings from his bleeding wounds.
Well Michael was intrigued by all
this, so he decided to visit the monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo where Padre
Pio had lived. He said he felt like
Padre Pio was calling him there. Well,
to make a long story short, that led to a real conversion in Michael’s
life. In fact, for many years afterward
Michael would live with the Franciscans in San Giovanni Rotondo for several
months of the year and help them in any way he could—especially with the many English-speaking
pilgrims who would come to the monastery on pilgrimage. He would come back to the United States only
to do his Santa work for a few months to earn enough money to pay the bills.
In a paper he once
wrote about his conversion experience, Michael said this:
I could not understand why Padre Pio wanted me, because I was a sinner. I lived in Hollywood and New York; I lived in what one would call the “fast lane”—keeping company with Hollywood celebrities and the world’s social elite. Flying in private jets, riding in limousines, staying in four-star hotels; my life was surrounded by glitz and glamour. I lived in a very material world and I thought I was happy there. . . .
But something was missing. When I came to know Padre Pio, I came to know real faith and the meaning of love. Love for our brothers and sisters; learning that all of us are put here to serve and love one another. Through Padre Pio I found true happiness and joy in my life.
Michael said there, “I could not
understand why Padre Pio wanted me, because I was a sinner.”
Well join the club, Michael! Jesus said, “I have come to call, not the
self-righteous, but sinners.” (Mt 9: 13)
What my cousin had to learn—and what he thankfully did learn—was that Jesus
Christ came into the world 2,000 years ago to save him—and to save the
rest of us—from our sins, and especially from the eternal consequences of those
sins. In fact, that’s what the name
“Jesus” means. As the angel said
to St. Joseph, “[Your wife Mary] will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their
sins.”
The name Jesus literally means
“Savior”—not “teacher,” not “wise man,” not “philosopher,” not “all-around nice
guy”. His name signifies what he was,
first and foremost: the one who saves us
from our sins.
If we let him! My cousin Michael “let him” in 2002, when he
first went to San Giovanni Rotondo—and he continued to do that, as far as I know,
for the rest of his life. He went to
Mass faithfully and to confession regularly.
Inspired by Padre Pio, he took his faith very seriously. And knowing Michael as I did, I’m sure he
shared that faith with his celebrity clients whenever God gave him the
opportunity. Praise God!
There is nothing more important
in this life, my brothers and sisters, than being saved from your sins—because
the consequences of not being saved are eternal!
It reminds me of something that happened here in Westerly just a few
weeks ago. It was a Sunday morning; the
10:30a.m. Mass had just ended, and I was having a conversation in the vestibule
with a visitor—a
woman who used to be a parishioner of St. Pius.
One of her sons was an altar server here when I first came to the parish
in 1988. She was in town because her
husband was in Westerly Hospital in the final days of his life. She said to me at one point that the hospital
chaplain had mentioned Baptism to her husband when he visited him the day before
(her husband had never been baptized).
So I went to the hospital after Mass and asked him point blank, “Would
you like to be baptized?” He said, “Yes”—enthusiastically.
So
I came back to the rectory, told Fr. Najim what had happened, and the two of us
went back to the hospital. And there,
surrounded by his wife (who was crying tears of joy) and his 3 sons, this man
was baptized by Fr. Najim (which, among other things brought him forgiveness
for every single sin he had ever committed in his entire life up to that point!). Fr. Najim then confirmed him and gave him his
first Communion; and I gave him the sacrament of the sick. Five days later, he died. Five days later, the Lord called him home.
I
think he was ready. In Baptism he
received the grace of salvation that Jesus Christ came into the world and died
on the cross to give him. If he had
lived longer and had committed a mortal sin at some point along the way, he
could have gotten that grace back into his soul by making a good confession. And so can we.
Like my cousin Michael Chellel—Santa to the Stars—this man came to understand and to experience the truth that Jesus came to call sinners—like him. It’s my prayer on this Christmas morning that every single one of us in this church today will have the very same understanding and the very same experience.
