By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the dedication Mass for Our Lady of La Vang Vietnamese Mission in Hallandale Beach, formerly St. Charles Borromeo Church. The Mass was celebrated Dec. 14, 2014.
Today, on Gaudete Sunday, we with great joy dedicate this church building in honor of Our Lady of La Vang, the mother of the Vietnamese people and the Mother of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.
During this season of Advent, we look to the examples and lives of John the Baptist and Mary: both prepared the way of the Lord. They did so through their humility©in their humbleness of mind and heart they made room for God. Both received from the Lord a mission � and so have we. Like Mary and John the Baptist, you and I are sent into the world©in the words of Pope Francis©to be missionary disciples, and we do this when we too point to God’s very presence among us.
As Catholics we must continue to point to the presence of Christ in our world©we do this by the way we live and we do it, of course, by our faithfulness to the life of faith©saying our prayers, participating in the Mass and the sacramental life of the Church. Like St. John the Baptist, our lives should point to Christ©and not just ourselves.
Today this church building also reminds us to make room for God in our hearts and in our lives. In coming to this parish church each Sunday, you are reminded that God created us more than just to die one day. We were created for God and to spend eternal life with him. Your life is not a mere accident©as God called John the Baptist and the Blessed Mother to accomplish his purposes, so he calls each one of us. We too must bring God’s love into a suffering world, we too must witness to his Kingdom by making that kingdom real to those who feel lost or outcast.
God will live with his people here in this house, this house of God. In blessing this building today, we set it apart©we make it a sacred place. But let us remember that we too as baptized Catholics have also been set apart. As these walls will be anointed with Chrism, to remind us that God dwells here with his people, we must remember that we also were anointed©and as God dwells here as in his temple, we too are his temples, temples of the Holy Spirit. As we dedicate this Church to God, we must rededicate ourselves to God, asking the Lord to renew within us those gifts of the Holy Spirit that we received in Baptism and Confirmation. And may those gifts produce in our lives their fruits so that our witness may help others know the “Joy of the Gospel.”
Did God really need another church, another temple? No, not really; the earth and all that it contains is his temple. God didn’t need this church. You did. And why did you feel that you needed it? So that you could worship in your own place, at the times of your choosing, in ways that reflect and express your own language and your culture. Yes, of course©all that; but, more importantly, you needed to build this house of God so that you yourselves, through your sacrifices, might become more perfectly the Body of Christ you already are, because of the Spirit dwelling in you. And those sacrifices are not only in the past but also lie in the future as you struggle to pay for this beautiful building.
If you ask any child what a church is, she or he might reply©especially if that child has been well catechized©a church is God’s house. All God’s children should feel at home in their Father’s house©and so we can and should feel at home in any church where we worship. But, in a very special, this particular house of God is also your home. You have a home here because in this house of God, your mother’s tongue is spoken.
I congratulate all the parishioners, especially those who worked so hard over these past several months in renovating the former St. Charles Borromeo. You have done good work � this church is a beautiful and fitting place for the Vietnamese community to gather and worship.
Yet, remember, worship pleasing to God can be offered any place©if the heart is renovated. Cardinal Van Thuan, after the fall of South Viet Nam, was arrested and put in solitary confinement for 13 years in a damp and dirty cell. Friends smuggled to him some bread and some wine©and he would offer the holy Mass using the palm of his hand as an altar. And that hand was a worthy altar because he brought his offering to the Lord with no resentment, with no rancor or hatred towards those who imprisoned him, toward those who persecuted him. He even ended up converting a few of his jailers.
May his example and the example of the Holy Martyrs of Vietnam and the endurance of the Church today in Vietnam help us to bring our gifts to the altar with our hearts reconciled to God and to all our brothers and sisters. Here in South Florida, Christ will probably not ask us to endure imprisonment or suffer martyrdom. (Please God, we would if he did.) But today Christ asks us©at this altar - to shed our resentments, our bad feelings, any anger we might harbor in our hearts.
And we do know that the Church in Vietnam endures and suffers many things. May the parishioners of Our Lady of La Vang never fail to pray for your brothers and sisters who make up the Church in Vietnam.
As Catholics we believe that God made all things �visible and invisible. He made all things good. And therefore, all creation, all the material things God has given us, can serve as means to help us encounter him. The Son of God became incarnate so that he might more easily bring us to his Father. Because of the incarnation, material things can be used to communicate grace. We believe that the sacraments communicate God’s grace, God’s life to us. What grace is doing is made more comprehensible through the sacramental forms: water, oil, bread and wine©all help communicate the mysteries they symbolize and make present to us. In this way, all the accessories, all the appointments in this church©the ambo, the altar, the candles, the baptistery, the stations©they all help communicate to us the great mystery we celebrate here.
So, this evening, I pray that this church building that we dedicate today will, in all its features, help communicate to you the great Mystery of our salvation which will be celebrated here every day.
