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Homilies | Sunday, August 19, 2018

'As God's people, you deserve better'

Archbishop Wenski's homily at St. Coleman Church

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at St. Coleman Parish, Pompano Beach, on Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018.

These are hard times for the Church – our faith is tested when we hear about scandals in the media; our faith is tested even more when those scandals hit us close to home. I can only apologize for the breach of trust of one of my priests. As God’s people, you deserve better. And I am confident that your new priest will be the kind of pastor that you deserve.

When Christ rose from the dead, the wounds of his passion did not disappear. After the Resurrection, Thomas could put in finger in Jesus’ pierced side and hands. As Church, as baptized Christians, we become members of the Body of Christ which lives in the world until we are united in heaven with Christ, our Head. And the Body of Christ which is the Church is also wounded – wounded by the sins of her members.

Church history and our daily experience give ample evidence of the sinfulness of the members of Christ’s body. But, should we be surprised that a Church that Jesus founded to save sinners finds within her ranks sinners? Nevertheless, the failure of many members to live coherently the faith they profess is a counter witness to the Gospel. On the eve of his election as pope, Cardinal Ratzinger decried the “filth” to be found within the Church, and then as Pope Benedict remarked that when the “world reminds us of our sins” the proper response is not denial but repentance.

St. Paul tells the Ephesians in today’s Second Reading: “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making most of the opportunity because these days are evil.”

I like to tell people that we call ourselves “practicing Catholics” because this life is our one-time chance — our one opportunity — to practice our faith – and to keep practicing it till we get it right.

“Understand the will of the Lord,” St. Paul also tells us. Jesus says in Matthew 7:14: “Small is the gate and narrow the path that leads to life…” The guardrails along that path are the commandments. When those guardrails are breeched, we see what happens.

For this reason, Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray: Father, thy will be done; and to plead “deliver us from evil” and to beg “give us this day our daily bread.”

The bread he gives us is his very self. When we eat ordinary food, what we eat is broken down and becomes part of us. But Jesus gives us the extraordinary food of his very flesh and blood. We eat and drink this food so that we can become part of him. We receive him in Holy Communion not only so that he can live in us and become part of us but so that we can live in him and become part of him. We eat the Body of Christ to become what we receive.

Christ promises us, if we eat his body and drink his blood, eternal life. The scandals of the Church – and certainly the behavior of Father Henryk – sadden us and disappoint us. However, at the same time, these failings should remind us, as I said, of our common humanity, the fallen human nature that we share because of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and thus of the frailty of the human condition.

Let us evoke the intercession of Mary whose Assumption body and soul into heaven we have just celebrated: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen

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