1. Your fidelity and devotion to the third commandment—”remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” [Exo 20:8]—is a testimony to your faith. Many of you have sacrificed to be here. Your presence in the House of God is itself a gift to the Most High. What you have sacrificed in order to worship this day is also your gift to our loving, provident Father.
2. Your steadfast example of keeping watch with the Lord inspires and invigorates all those who gather in his name. You, as the Bride of Christ, strengthen the determination of those whose faith is weak. May they repent and turn again to God with all their heart, soul, and might, “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”. [Acts 3:19]
MYSTERY OF THINGS3. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we appeal to the Father through the divine personhood and merits of his son, our Lord Jesus—upon whom the Spirit descended and came to rest. [cf. Jn 1:33] We offer the unworthy yet earnest desires of a people united in faith: “But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself”. [Psa 4:3] Many of our prayers petition God for specific and difficult things.
4. We “earnestly desire the higher gifts”. This “still more excellent way” [1Cor 12:31] is the mystery of things that are known but not fully understood. We ask the Lord to grant us a share of his divine attributes, gifts that endure, things that cannot be seen: “...so faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”. [1Cor 13:13] Our enduring Christian mission is the sharing of our faith.
SHARING AND WITNESSING
5. You are sharing and witnessing it to others at this very celebration of Holy Eucharist. Every individual, indeed every generation through whom God shows his glory, must discover anew the baptismal mystery of Christ. It is the “secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glorification” [1Cor 2:7] that we might possess “. . . full awareness of (man's) dignity, of the heights to which he is raised, of the surpassing worth of his own humanity, and of the meaning of his existence”.[2]
6. The Holy Spirit enables us to see for ourselves what the baptizer saw, and to bear witness as his spiritual heirs that Jesus Christ is the “Son of God”. [Jn 1:34] St. Jude entreats us in Sacred Scripture, in his exquisite little one-chapter epistle, to “contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”. [Jude 1:1]
"SOURCE AND THE SUMMIT"
7. We pray that St. Jude, the saints, and all the heavenly host, will intercede for us before the Mercy Seat of God [cf. Num 7:89], intervening on our behalf against the forces of darkness in this present age. Dare we demand of the saints of heaven that which we, ourselves, are averse to doing? Let us, then, contend for one another in faith as holy saints, even as St. Jude intercedes before God at this very hour, for the Gospel has been delivered to us as seed for the garden.
8. We must first submit our own discipleship to the test that we may be spared the trial of a severe but deserved judgment. In the name of Christ and his Church, I urge you to remain close to the Church and her teachings, inspired as they are by the Holy Spirit. Continue to take refuge in the Word of God “delivered to the saints”. [Jude 1:3] Hold fast to your daily habit of prayer and the liturgy of Holy Eucharist: “...the source and the summit of the whole of the Church's worship and of the Christian life.”[3]
CARE OF SOULS
9. Maintain your devotions, especially to our Blessed Mother's rosary. Always offer a prayer of thanksgiving after receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Deepen your reverence for the sacred, and be unwavering in your support of the liturgical norms of the universal Church. Next, put your stewardship of the mysteries of Christ to the test. Our Savior declared, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [Mt. 22:39]
SILENT WITNESS
11. St. Jude confidently exhorts us to advance the cause of faith, for this is rooted in the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves:
BUT YOU beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy. [Jude 1:20-23]12. You and I are “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy”. [1Cor 4:1-2] God entrusts the building of his Church to us and as yet it remains unfinished. The silent witness of the empty seats in our Churches is deafening. The “Lord of the harvest” [Mt 9:38] desires that his laborers announce the glory of God for the deliverance of souls from bondage to sin.
POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
13. Let us, as “faithful and wise stewards” [Lk 12:42] labor to fill the pews of our Churches. Teach the mystery! Implement the Gospel! (Gk. oikonomia) Stir up faith in Jesus the Messiah who is Lord and bring together the Church.[4] The “partakers of the promise” [Eph 3:6] are commissioned to share the divinely revealed message not to extol a gospel of personal opinions, conflicts or anxieties. Remember that Christ himself delivered faithfully the mystery of salvation to the “principalities and powers of heaven”. [Eph 6:12]
14. Not even the nine angelic hierarchies knew God's “eternal purpose” [Eph 3:11] until it was inaugurated by the “Lamb of God” [Jn 1:29] and his Church and delivered “to the end of the earth”. [Isa 49:6] Pope Paul VI, on the tenth anniversary of the close of Vatican Council II, declared that the true power of God's holy people is the Holy Spirit:
THE HOLY Spirit is the soul of the Church. It is he who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of Jesus and of his mystery. It is the Holy Spirit who, today, just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by him.THEN SAVE OTHERS
THE HOLY Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find himself, and at the same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the Kingdom being proclaimed.[5]
15. Through the grace of Christ, “you can speak freely to God, drawing near to him with confidence”. [Heb 4:16] Your discipleship matures. You “proclaim how exalted is God's name” and “make known his deeds among the nations”. [Isa 12:4] You begin by saying to others, Let me tell you what God has done for me. If you desire the salvation of your own soul, then save others.
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[1] Cycle A /Second Sunday in Ordinary Time /Isa 49:3, 5-6 /1Cor 1:1-3 /Jn 1:29-34.
[2] John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, no. 30 (1979).
[3] VATICAN COUNCIL II, Eucharisticum Mysterium, no. 3 (1967).
[4] VATICAN COUNCIL II, Dei Verbum, no. 17 (1965).
[5] Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 75 (1975).
Photo # 1 - St Francis de Paulo Church, Tularosa NM
Photo # 2 - St. Francis of Assisi Basilica, Santa Fe NM
