Rejoice in God's Blessings to the Church

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Year C
Zephaniah 3.14-18a Isaiah 12 Philippians 4.4-7 Luke 3.10-18

As Father Paul Etienne lay prostrate on the floor of the Cheyenne Civic Center this past Wednesday, a congregation of almost 1,500 people sang the Litany of the Saints, asking the prayers of all the Holy Ones for a man about to be ordained a bishop. When Father Paul rose from the floor, twenty bishops – including Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles, and our own Archbishop Daniel Buechlein – took turns laying their hands on his head. These bishops then prayed together an ancient prayer of consecration. And Father Paul Etienne became Bishop Paul Etienne, Bishop of Cheyenne and a successor of the Apostles.

With all that is going on in the world today, it is refreshing to have good news to share. Even as jobs continue to be lost and families continue to drift apart, even as celebrity scandals dominate headlines and brave men and women die while preserving freedom – there are reasons for us to have hope and even to rejoice. The forty-plus members of this parish who traveled to Cheyenne this week returned to southern Indiana to spread the news that God has blessed his Church. Those of us who witnessed the laying on of hands, the anointing with Sacred Chrism, and the handing on of the mitre, crosier, and bishop’s ring bring back home an experience of the Church universal and a reminder that God continues to provide ministers for his church. Like all Church ministries, the ministry of a bishop is not for himself – it is a ministry for the Church, it is a ministry at the service of the gospel. As best possible, a bishop is called to be all things to all people, in the name of Christ our Lord. Today we rejoice not because one man whom many of us know has become a bishop – we rejoice because God continues to call people to follow and serve him, we rejoice because God continues to shower us all with his grace and blessings, we rejoice because God continues to guide us on this earthly journey with the goal of joining him forever in heaven. This truly is good news, and reason to celebrate – God is with His people!

When asked to reflect on his own life and ministry as a bishop, Pope John Paul II began not with the day of his appointment or ordination; he began the story of his life as a bishop in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, where Christ celebrated the last supper with his apostles and gave them the responsibility of spreading the good news and celebrating the Eucharist.* From that Upper Room almost two thousand years ago, the apostles went forth to gather other people to their flock. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they baptized, preached the saving death and resurrection of Christ, and celebrated the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. As time went on, they chose others to share in their ministry, laying hands on men chosen as their successors. These immediate successors to the apostles continued that chain of succession unbroken, even to this week, when Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver and his brother bishops laid their hands on the head of Bishop Paul Etienne, making him a successor to the apostles. These bishops in turn ordain priests to help in their ministry; they gather consecrated religious and lay people together to labor in God’s flock. And somewhere along the line, the gospel that was preached by the apostles and handed on in their time, and in all the ages past, that same gospel reached your ears and mine, and we too answered Christ’s call to follow him. And so the journey continues. Like John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit calls us to go into the wilderness of a world that does not know God and point the way to Christ, the one who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit, the one who will renew us in love. Whether bishop or parent, priest or friend, married or single – we all share in that call. From the Upper Room in Jerusalem to the Cheyenne Civic Center to this very church to the streets of New Albany, the message of Christ has been handed on from person to person through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is truly good news - the work of Christ and his apostles continues today.

* Pope John Paul II, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, Warner Books, 2004.