"Faith
in God Who is Love Makes Us Witnesses to Hope"
Homily of Most Reverend Thomas Wenski
Mass for
Hispanic Movements
Friday, June 5, 2010
Archbishop Thomas Wenski - Pastoral Center
www.newmiamiarch.org
A few days ago I
received a letter from the archbishop of Aparecida in Brazil,
Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis. He is also president of CELAM,
the Latin American Bishops’ Conference. He wrote to congratulate me
on being named to Miami. In his letter, he told me: The Church of
Miami is a kind of summary of all of Latin America.
And tonight, it seems as if all of Latin America and the Caribbean
have responded: “Present!” Thank you! Thank you very much!
Two years ago, the Holy Father visited Brazil, where he met with the
bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. This was an opportunity
for the Pope to learn close-up about the reality of this continent,
which he called the continent of Hope. And today, in this
celebration of my arrival as your archbishop, we celebrate the Holy
Mass, in which we receive the grace of God precisely to reinforce
that hope that always has accompanied the Hispanic people despite
the difficulties of daily life of the nations and individuals of
this immense continent. Thanks to that hope, the people of Latin
America have always taken steps forward, convinced that “Yes, we
can.”
As I begin my service as your archbishop, I want to ask you — and
also the apostolic movements that you represent — to unite with me
and with the whole Catholic Church in south Florida to take this
message of hope that is so sorely needed in the world in which we
live today.
According to the Pope, the richest treasure of the Latin American
continent, its most valued patrimony, is “the faith in God Love”
that revealed His face in Jesus Christ. And the Latin American
people are a people who believe in God Love. Throughout their
history, this faith has been their strength, and it remains a
strength that conquers the world, a joy that nothing and no one can
take away; it is the peace that Christ gained for you with his
Cross. As Pope Benedict affirms: “This is the faith that has made
America the 'Continent of Hope.' Not a political ideology, not a
social movement, not an economic system: faith in the God who is
Love — who took flesh, died and rose in Jesus Christ —is the
authentic basis for this hope which has brought forth such a
magnificent harvest from the time of the first evangelization until
today.”
However, many of our contemporaries live without hope. The addiction
to drugs is only a symptom of that lack of hope; the high rate of
abortion in our Miami community (almost 30 percent of the abortions
in Florida are done here in Miami-Dade) is also another symptom of
the lack of hope — because children are the hope of the future; the
growing number of couples who live together, not “for as long as we
both shall live but until the moment it suits us” is yet another
symptom of not having hope — for in order to make a commitment for
life, we have to believe in the future, that future that only opens
up for us when we have hope.
We also know that there are many people here in Miami who, although
they are Hispanic, are unaware of that treasure, that patrimony of
faith in God Love that is revealed in Jesus Christ. In some cases,
the fault lies in the very fact of their emigration, in the process
of which they have lost contact with the religious roots in their
culture of origin. Others — and this is not a small group in our
Miami community — grew up in a society that was officially
atheistic. And if at one point they were defrauded by the false
promises of an ideological materialism, now they are tempted by the
false promises of a practical materialism that, sooner or later,
also will leave them defrauded once more.
Pope Benedict, in his encyclical, Spe Salvi, offered us an
explanation of why we have lost hope despite the riches that
surround us. He writes: a world without God is a world without hope.
When human beings pretend to live as if God does not matter, when a
society or a government want to organize themselves without regard
for God, hope is lost, because to cast God aside is to close the
doors to that future to which God calls us.
That is why I challenge you (and I need your support and
collaboration), as members of your parishes and as militants in your
movements, to be witnesses to hope. Give witness of how one can live
happily when one is convinced that God does matter. The apostolic
movements are a great gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church — for
they can reach more easily and sometimes more effectively than the
parishes those people who don’t go to Mass on Sunday, inviting them
to draw near and encounter Christ, the only hope that will never
defraud mankind.
Hispanics already constitute the largest minority in the United
States. Hispanics currently make up the largest group of Catholics —
baptized, if not practicing — in this country. They almost make up
the greatest proportion of the 40 million immigrants that have
reached these shores — legally or illegally — since the mid 1960s,
when the restrictions on immigration that dated back to the 1920s
were lifted. Taken as a whole, Hispanics represent a great
opportunity and a great hope for the society of the United States
and for the Catholic Church in America. Their values are formed
within a Catholic religious culture.
That is why I believe that Hispanic immigrants can renew American
society, because they represent an antidote to the individualism and
moral relativism that has infected American popular culture.
Immigrants, and Hispanics in particular, seek economic opportunity
in this country; they still believe in the “American dream.” They
believe that with hard work and by taking advantage of the
opportunities this country offers, they can better themselves. This
is reflected at all the economic levels, from the professionals to
the humble migrant worker. It is reflected particularly in those
whose contributions and potential usefulness to American society is
doubted by many, specifically the poor immigrants who take the jobs
Americans don’t want. Those jobs that Americans consider “dead end”
jobs are, for immigrants, an opportunity to enter the world of work.
In the daily lives of Hispanics living here in the United States, we
see a living witness of the words of St. Paul: “I can do all things
through Him who strengthens me.”
One of the central teachings of the Second Vatican Council was that
"man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of
himself." (Gaudium et Spes) In a culture centered each time more on
itself, that values what you have more than what you are, Hispanic
immigrants give witness to a “theology of giving” that is profoundly
Catholic. Because, in the majority of cases, they have immigrated
not only to seek their “personal fulfillment”, but to be able to
help their loved ones. In many cases, coming here represents a
considerable sacrifice for them - to leave behind their loved ones
not to abandon them but to help them. The millions of dollars sent
via remittances back home give witness to this “theology of giving.”
Hispanic immigrants offer America almost as many opportunities as
America offers them. The majority of studies focus on their “labor”,
their contribution to the employment pool. That should not be
downplayed — especially with the low birth rate among the more
established American populations and the soon-to-come retirement of
people born after the Second World War (baby-boomers). However,
Hispanics’ greatest potential contribution — and the greatest
opportunity for America — is the contribution of their traditional
values to the renewal of our culture.
To the undocumented, I say, don’t lose your faith in God, in that
God Love. Because that faith — despite the current shadows — will
light your way toward hope. God’s love has no borders. Made in the
image and likeness of God, every human being has the same destiny —
to be friends with God.
Latin Americans, because they can be “criollos” or “mestizos”, have,
as their proper vocation, to announce to everyone that common
destiny. Before those who want to let themselves be carried away by
fear — and so build up walls of racism and lack of understanding —
we have to be witnesses of a God Love, a compassionate God, a God
who is Father of all — whether they “have papers” or not.
We have to announce that through our solidarity with the lepers of
our day — for they are our brothers. St. Francis of Assisi once
kissed a leper — we who are citizens cannot deny help to our
brothers, even if it is the simple gesture of extending a friendly
hand to someone who is undocumented or writing to our Congressmen to
seek justice on their behalf.
And those young people raised here in Miami but without papers,
without Social Security cards, we cannot forget about them. They
need to get legal status in order to continue studying, so that they
can make their contribution to the welfare of this country, the only
country the majority of them know. They already speak like
Americans, think like Americans — and this sometimes worries their
parents. They eat like Americans. Why deny them the possibility of
dreaming like Americans?
May the Virgin Mary gain for the children of this continent of hope
the grace to dress themselves with the power from above (cf. Lc 24,
49) in order to radiate in this country and in all the world the
holiness of Christ. Through her intercession, may we become
disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ so that our nations might
have life in Him. To him be the glory, with the Father and Holy
Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
