"Look,
There Goes the Church!"
Homily of Most Reverend Thomas Wenski
Welcome Mass for Religious
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Archbishop Thomas Wenski - Pastoral Center
www.newmiamiarch.org
It is hard to
believe that almost three weeks have passed since I was installed
here at St. Mary’s Cathedral on June 1st. Today, as pastor of this
cathedral parish I am happy to join Msgr. Hogan, your rector, and
the other priests who join me in celebrating Sunday Mass; and today
brings me here for the “last” of several official “welcome” Masses.
And this week, I go to Rome accompanied by a goodly number of the
faithful fro, both the Archdiocese and my former diocese of Orlando
to receive the “pallium” from the hands of Pope Benedict XVI, But
joining the parish community at this Mass as members of several of
the religious congregations who serve in the Archdiocese. They come
today to welcome me as the new Archbishop of this local Church of
Miami.
I am most happy to celebrate this Mass with the Religious Priests,
Sisters and Brothers who serve so selflessly here in the Archdiocese
of Miami. As Archbishop, this Mass gives me the opportunity not only
to meet with them but also to express my gratitude to them for all
that they do and will continue to do in this Archdiocese – but more
importantly, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers I want to thank you for
who you are.
If we in the Church were only to acknowledge you for the things you
do, we would be sorely remiss. That’s not to say you, in all the
various ministries and particular charisms you represent, do not do
wonderful and important things. And we are grateful; however, who
you are, as consecrated religious, is the real gift. Pope John Paul
II said it so well in Vita Consecrata: “Consecrated life is the gift
of the Father to the Church through the Holy Spirit.”
The other day, I was reviewing a vocation video on religious life,
and one sister was said that one day when walking in some downtown
area, a little girl saw her, pointed to her and said to her mother:
Mommy, look there goes the Church. For this little girl, the
religious habit of this sister was an iconic representation of the
Church.
The girl grasped a profound truth about the nature of consecrated
life. You “consecrated” are the Church “concentrated” – as it were.
Your lives as consecrated religious is at the very heart of the
Church – because your radical embrace of the gospel makes manifest
the inner nature of every Christian’s calling. Or, in the words of
the Second Vatican Council, “the ultimate norm of religious life is
the following of Christ (vitae religiosae ultima norma sequela
Christi). You are vowed to live the evangelical counsels: poverty,
chastity and obedience which the world – and too often the faithful
– see as simply renunciations. However, they are more than that –
for each counsel in its own unique way is a specific acceptance of
the Mystery of Christ lived within the Church. As I said, you are
the Church concentrated. And through you and your witness, the
evangelical counsels – “characteristic features of Jesus, the
chaste, poor, obedient one, are made constantly visible in the midst
of the world.
In John Paul II’s Vita Consecrata, an apostolic exhortation
delivered after the Synod on Consecrated Life in 1995, he describes
religious life as an “Icon of the Transfigured Christ” - for the
vowed life does proclaim and anticipate the future age when we will
experience the fullness of the Kingdom. In this way, vowed religious
are witnesses to hope. Your lives testify to the fact that God
matters – and today when so much of society wishes to live as if he
did not matter, it is not surprising that your embrace of your
vocation is viewed by many with skepticism if not ridicule. The
religious life is a “sign of contradiction” that challenges – and
must always challenge the assumptions of those who do not take God
in account.
Vatican II rightly emphasized all the baptized are called to
holiness. Thus, all are equally called to follow Christ, to discover
in him the ultimate meaning of our existence. However, like those
chosen disciples, those whose baptismal consecration has developed
into a radical response to the following of Christ expressed in vows
of poverty, chastity and obedience have a “special experience of the
light that shines forth from the Incarnate Word”.
If as John Paul II asserts the religious life is an “icon of the
Transfigured Christ” then the words spoken then by Peter: "Lord, it
is well that we are here" (Mt 17:4) can be appropriated most
fittingly by you in your response to your vocation to the
consecrated life. You too can say: how good it is for us to be with
you, Lord; to devote ourselves to you, to make you the one focus of
our lives! Of course, those words of Peter were preceded with those
spoken in today’s gospel reading, “You are the Christ”. These words
were given in answer to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Prior to any religious vocation is an encounter with the Lord – an
encounter with the one we know to be “the Christ”. If we want to
renew religious life and revitalize our religious communities, if we
want to promote vocations to the religious life and to the
priesthood, we have to continue to introduce young people to the
person of Jesus Christ as he is known and encountered in the life of
the Church, namely as Peter recognized him today, as Christ, the Son
of the living God.
The “consecrated”, as I said, are the Church “concentrated”, you
give us a unique witness to the implication of our own baptismal
call to holiness. Your consecrated life is a gift to the Church that
makes manifest the striving of the whole Church as Bride towards
union with her one Spouse.
I look forward to working with you all in the Archdiocese. I thank
you for your welcoming me back home. In the name of all the people
of God here in this archdiocese, I say again how good it is for us
that you chose to be with the Lord, to devote yourselves to the
Lord, to make him the one focus of your lives.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
