Homily for 4th Lent, March 10, 2013
St. Ignatius Church
Fr. Joseph T. Nolan
I want to make my contribution, and I hope it is yours also, to what is going on in the
church. Do I mean the election of the Pope? No, rather, the loss of membership in the
church. An Irish priest put it well when he said, “We worry about the shortage of
priests. We should worry about the shortage of worshippers.” I am not going to list
the reasons why they leave but rather the reasons why people should stay. In other words,
what are the treasures we possess in our Catholic faith?
First among them I would list what we are doing right now, the Mass. It is an
extraordinary way of worship, especially your role of offering it with the priest, which
was emphasized in the reform of the liturgy. “Do this,” Jesus said, “to remember me.”
We have done it ever since. I don’t think any command has ever been more fully obeyed.
We have heard the word that gives us his teaching, break the bread which is his body,
pour the wine which is his blood. We offer the sacrifice and receive the sacrament. We
seek communion as well as receive it. And why not, since baptism made us all members
of his body.
What else do we have? A special way of marking time, the liturgical year. We like the
variety that comes with Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. We don’t rightly understand
Pentecost, and we need to work on it.
We have a sanctoral cycle and our favorite saints. (need I remind you that St. Patrick’s
Day is happily next Sunday!) We have above all the devotion to Mary and the great
pilgrimages to her shrines. And that other major devotion which is to the Blessed
Sacrament.
We have sacraments – to bring us deeper into the ongoing life of Christ. And
sacramentals – hundreds of them, to bless just about everything.
Catholicism has a mystical tradition. There are great mystics like John of the Cross and
Teresa of Avila. And everyday mystics like that other Terese, the Little Flower. And
another deep one: the 11th century abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. If you don’t know her, it
is part of the richness in the church for you to discover. And to enjoy, especially her
music, which recently turned up on CDs. Now, this nun who advised and corrected
bishops and popes and suffered persecution for it, has just been declared a Doctor of the
Church.
We have a great tradition of scholarship. Think of Thomas Aquinas writing 47 folios, and
Augustine, 750 books. Or the biblical scholars now who labor to give us the in-depth
meaning of the Word. And the great universities founded in the Middle Ages: Oxford,
Cambridge, Paris, Milan, Salamanca, and more. That tradition goes on. There is a great
Catholic university right up the hill! And yes, also in some place called South Bend. They
are houses of wisdom, seeking more. The Catholic tradition has been the home of great
art. Think of the cathedrals which have been called sermons in stone. The Romanesque,
the Byzantine, the Gothic, the Baroque, and new forms for our own time, like the
extraordinary cathedrals in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The Catholic tradition will remind you of hope in the midst of suffering because the
crucifix is our main ikon. And of the Real Presence, with the red lamp burning before the
tabernacle. It will remind you – and this above all – of the resurrection, eternal life,
especially with the great Easter celebration.
We have had (and continue to have) the great contribution of the sisters, the nuns, and of
lay people who have been heroic Christians, like Dorothy Day and Cezar Chavez. And
extraordinary bishops like the one in Brazil who wears a peasant’s hat for his mitre and a
shepherd’s staff – a real one, made of wood -- for his crozier. He lives among the poor.
Of course we have problems – an important one is that we don’t adequately appreciate
the role of women in the church. But we work on these problems. Right now we need a
new pope. Whoever the pope is, the church will continue. Remember, Vatican II
reminded us that the people are the church. And the variety of candidates for the papacy
reminds us that as a church, we are truly catholic. As one admirer said, an outsider
himself, “the Catholic Church means ‘here comes everybody!’ ”
I have listed some but not all of the splendors and truths of being members of this church.
This is your heritage; it came with your baptism . Use it. Don’t give up on it.