Homily for October 22, 2023
Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Special Mass
for 70th Anniversary of Diocese
Motley Crew
Jesus
came to earth, died to wipe away the sins of all of humanity, and then rose
again to bring humanity to Heaven with Him. This message of hope and salvation
was literally the most important message human beings have ever received…so who
did Jesus choose to spread it? A communications expert? Someone skilled in
logistics? The most courageous, holy, effective people He could find?
Nope – He
chose blue-collar workers. Fishermen. A public sinner like a tax collector. A
man who doubted His resurrection, a man who denied him under pressure, and
other men who ran away at the most critical moment. It was to this motley crew
that He entrusted the monumental task of bringing the entire world to Heaven.
Paradoxically,
it is precisely the failings of the Church that prove its divine origin. As
Catholic thinker Hillaire Belloc once said, “[The Church is] an institute run
with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not
last a fortnight.” The Catholic Church is not a social club, a charity, or even
a community of faith. It is, rather, a divine institution. It was founded by
Jesus Christ and animated by the Holy Spirit – and this is why I remain
Catholic, even when its members are imperfect.
Today we
celebrate 70 years of the Diocese of Bridgeport. In those past 70 years, we
have had some saints and some sinners – some tremendous blessings, and some big
challenges. Even if we look around in this church today, we see a motley crew
of saints and sinners, people with rock-solid faith and people who have one
foot out the door. And we look a whole lot like that motley crew that Jesus assembled
to live out and spread that Good News.
At the
end of the day, the imperfections of everyone in the Church – from Pope to
priest to regular folks in the pew – can be a good thing because it
forces us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. I remain a Catholic because
of Him – because He founded it, because it teaches His doctrine, because
He is truly present in the Holy Eucharist.
In fact,
to be a Catholic is to belong to Him. St. Paul uses two beautiful images
that bespeak of the Church: the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ. We are
the Body of Christ because we continue the life of Christ in the world today.
In the powerful words of St. Theresa of Avila: “Christ has no body but yours, No
hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which He looks with Compassion
on this world, Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good, Yours are the
hands, with which He blesses all the world.”
The
story is told of a Polish town in World War II that was badly damaged during
the bombings. One of the bombs destroyed the Catholic Church at the center of
town. When sorting through the rubble, the townspeople found the statue of
Jesus which had been badly damaged. They asked a sculptor and artist to restore
the statue, which he did, but the hands were so completely gone that he could
do nothing with them. So the townspeople chose to display the damaged statue in
the town square with the words underneath, “You are His Hands.”
The
Church is also the Bride of Christ. What does it mean to be the Bride of
Christ? Like any good husband is loyal to his bride, so the Lord will never
abandon us. He doesn’t take lightly to those who disrespect His Bride, as any
man wouldn’t put up with insults on His wife. And the Lord, too, desires
one-flesh union with us like a husband and wife have that union: our union is
effected by receiving His Body in the Eucharist.
But just
as a bride looks more radiant on her wedding day than she does when she just
rolls out of bed, so our Church is currently not looking as beautiful as she
will. Our second reading from Revelation speaks of the glories of the purified
Church descending from Heaven. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way there –
not because of us, but because of what Jesus is doing to sanctify His Bride.
Have you
ever wondered why, in the Creed we profess at every Mass, we don’t mention the
Eucharist? That is because it was never doubted for the first thousand years of
Christianity! However, around the year 1050 there was a French priest named Berengarius
who was the first person to say, “The Eucharist is merely a symbol of God, not
His true Body and Blood.” This led to a huge controversy in the Church about
the Eucharist – what was It, really? A symbol, or the True Presence?
About a
century later, in a small Italian town of Bolsena, a priest was elevating the
Eucharistic Host when all of a sudden a few drops of blood began to drip from
the Host onto the corporal (the white cloth on the altar). Recognizing this as
a miracle, the people spread the good news far and wide until Pope Urban IV heard
about it. He investigated it personally, and, convinced that it was a true
miracle, instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi, the feast which celebrates the
Body and Blood of the Lord. Man had questioned the Truth – and God answered,
bringing His Church to a deeper love and understanding of His greatness.
So God
has preserved the Church amidst many challenges. When the Church was tempted by
wealth and riches, God raised up St. Francis as a witness of poverty. When the
Church was threatened by the Protestant split, God raised up Catholic reforming
saints like St. Charles Borromeo and St. Robert Bellarmine. When new worlds
like America and Africa were opened up to Europe, God raised up St. Ignatius
Loyola to found the Jesuits who would be missionaries to these far-off places.
When the Church seems unrelatable to the youth of today, God has been raising
up young saints like Bl. Carlo Acutis, who became holy in his fifteen years of
life. This gives me a great hope – the Church
will always thrive, and “the gates of Hell will not prevail against it” – not because
of anything we do or don’t do, but because it belongs to Jesus Christ Himself.
Napoleon
Bonaparte once taunted a Catholic cardinal by saying, “Your Eminence, do you not
know that I have the power to destroy your Church?” The Cardinal responded, “Emperor,
the clergy of the Catholic Church have been trying to destroy the Church for
eighteen hundred years. We haven’t succeeded, and neither will you.” We’ve got
that guarantee from Christ!
So, be
proud to be Catholic! Be proud to be a part of the Diocese of Bridgeport! God
is still moving here, even in this motley crew assembled here in St. Jude’s
Parish!
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