By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the Mass where he installed Father Juan Carlos Salazar, as pastor of St. Martha Church in Miami Shores, Sept. 28, 2024. Father Salazar served as administrator of the parish since June 2022.
In the time that Father Juan Carlos Salazar has been with you at St. Martha’s, he has learned much, and he is willing and able to learn more as he continues to dedicate himself to you as a zealous pastor of souls. He has already come to love this community and wishes to continue to serve you. And he has no other agenda than to proclaim to you Christ crucified and yet risen from the dead.
And so, I am happy then to formally install him as your pastor today – which means you’ll get to keep him for a while. We formally give him the title of pastor – of course, the responsibilities and the headaches are the same as when he was just “administrator” – and so is the salary.
We pray that God, who called him to the priesthood and in doing so, began a very good work in him, will bring that work, through his service in this parish, to even greater fulfillment.
This weekend, the Vatican observes a World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees. The World Day of Migrants and Refugees is a call for our solidarity with people on the move. And certainly, a lot of people have moved to South Florida and our community’s diversity is well represented at St. Martha’s. Globalization has made our world smaller. We are all neighbors now. We need to learn to live as brothers and sisters in one human family. Our parishes, our Catholic communities, should model for the world what a reconciled and reconciling world could look like.
And the Scripture readings today give us some direction in how we should live as brothers and sisters. In the first reading we hear that Eldad and Medad receive a portion of the spirit even though they had not gone with the other elders. Joshua wanted to shut them up and shut them out, but Moses refused, asking him “Are you jealous for my sake?” just as Jesus also told his disciples not to stop the man who was casting out demons, even though he wasn’t with them. “Whoever is not against us is for us.”
This is a call to tolerance. Tolerance is the willingness to accept and respect feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from one's own. But at the same time, we should afford no tolerance to evil, especially evil acts against the vulnerable, the “little ones”.
Jesus speaks some seemingly harsh words – he is not advocating “self-mutilation.” “Pluck out your eye,” “Cut off your hand” are Semitic exaggerations to make a point. Namely, that we should be intolerant of what spiritual writers have called the “occasions of sin,” those people, places or things that could lead us into sin by causing us to stumble on the path of life. By speaking metaphorically of cutting off a leg or plucking out an eye, Jesus is telling us that nothing is worth exchanging for heaven.
We should honestly consider how our easy compromises with the godless culture around us, the taking our religious obligations too lightly, or that we allow ourselves to tolerate in ourselves sinful desires or actions that can give scandal to others and cause them to stumble. Yes, we need to be tolerant of others to see the good in them, and more intolerant with ourselves and withanything that could separate us from Christ.
When we come before the judgment seat of God, C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God will say in the end: ‘Thy will be done’. All who are in hell choose it. Without that self-choice there would be no hell.”
The patron saint of the parish priest is St. John Vianney, the Cure d’Ars. Some years after the French Revolution, when many people had drifted away from the Church, John Vianney was sent by his bishop to the poor village of Ars. He set out on foot to take up his assignment and after walking through the countryside, he realized he was lost and asked a young boy whom he encountered on his path if he knew the way to Ars. When the youngster said yes, Pere Jean Marie Vianney told him: “You show me the way to Ars and I’ll show you the way to heaven.” And, when he arrived in Ars, he set about to do just that. And that pretty much describes what Father Salazar’s job is here at St. Martha’s: to help you all get to heaven.
Father Salazar, as your pastor, is to be a faithful steward of you, the people entrusted to his care, and he is to dispense to you — with single minded and wholehearted devotion — the means of grace by preaching the Word and administering the sacraments.
Juan Carlos, love your people with a shepherd’s heart and feed them, lead them to Christ and teach them gently by word and example.
Dear people of St. Martha, Father Salazar has been entrusted with the “care of your souls,” which in Latin is called “cura animarum.” He is to carry out his duties “not with a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power, love and self-control” (cf. Timothy).
Care of souls is a threefold task: first, he must teach you faithfully what the Church believes and teaches. He doesn’t speak in his own name, but in the name of Christ; second, he must lead you, like the Good Shepherd, to safe pastures; and third, he must bring you to greater holiness.
In the confessional, in the Eucharist, in the anointing at Baptism, Confirmation and in the care of the sick, Father Salazar will strengthen you in the grace that will have you grow in holiness before the Lord.
Father, I am sure, will serve you well, as he has already done; and he will serve not by calling attention to himself, but by calling attention to the Lord; he will serve not by seeking his own interests but by putting first God’s will and the good and well-being of his people; he will serve not by trying to please everyone, for one who tries to do so usually ends up pleasing no one; rather, he will serve you best by trying to please the Lord in all things and over all things.
