By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the month’s mind Mass for Father Arthur Dennison, who died April 23, 2021. The Mass was celebrated May 24, 2021 at St. Augustine Church in Coral Gables, one of the parishes where Father Dennison served as pastor.
This evening, the feast of Mary Mother of the Church, we offer this month’s mind Mass for the eternal repose of the soul of Father Arthur Dennison who went to the Lord a month ago yesterday. My condolences, as well, to Father Arthur’s many friends – and to his former parishioners and students.
He retired about 10 years ago – and he moved to “Paradise” – or close to it, he moved to Key West. I tell priests when they retire, they are still priests; but retirement affords them the opportunity to be as occupied as they wish without being preoccupied with the burdens of administration. And so, in Key West, he kept himself occupied assisting Father (John) Baker at Mary Star of the Sea Basilica and serving as a chaplain to those incarcerated in the Monroe County jail. Parishioners there told me that he could give a one-sentence homily at the weekday Mass that would give them food for thought for the rest of the week.
I can assure you that the priests who were at Father’s funeral Mass in Key West and those of us who gather here tonight are edified by the presence of many lay people both in Key West and this evening – and this presence shows your appreciation but more importantly your love for Father Dennison.
In these difficult days in the life of the Church, we priests are uplifted in knowing – as you show us today – that God’s people do love their priests, despite our shortcomings and human frailty. Together we pray that the Lord will receive Father Dennison into his Kingdom and forgive whatever sins he may have committed due to human frailty.
We entrust Father Dennison to the Lord, the father of mercies. Our Lord once called him to the service of the altar; and he has now called him to the Eternal Banquet of which the many Masses Father celebrated were a pledge and foretaste.
God uses imperfect instruments to work his will so that we know that it is He who saves, and not us. We priests carry the great treasure of our priesthood in “vessels of clay,” and it is readily apparent that we were called to this noble vocation in spite of our own unworthiness.
This was as true for Arthur Dennison, as it is true for each one of us and as it was true for Saint Peter and the Apostles. Simon Peter once told Jesus, “Depart from me for I am a sinner.” Nevertheless, Jesus chose him as he chose Father Dennison and as he has chosen these priests. So we priests are not shy in asking prayers for Father Dennison – and when we die we beg your prayers for us.
To quote St. Paul, who as a one-time persecutor of the Church seemed to be an unlikely candidate to become the Apostle to the Gentiles: “...God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Like Father Dennison was, every priest here is privileged to serve God and his people in this awesome vocation of the holy priesthood. And despite our frail humanity and sinfulness, it is a holy priesthood because as “other Christs” we share in our Lord’s own high priesthood in our ministry of Word and Sacrament. And Father was also called to an intimate sharing in our Lord’s agony and passion, as he dealt with the consequences of liver disease, surviving two transplants, and then cancer. As Mary stood by Jesus at the foot of the cross, we can be assured that she also was near to Arthur in the hour of his death.
Perhaps God does not call the most qualified for we carry this incredible treasure of the holy priest, as St. Paul would say, in the vessels of the clay of our humanity; but he does wish, however, to qualify the called, and for this we all need to make ourselves ever submissive to his will. The Blessed Mother’s “Fiat,” spoken at the moment of the Incarnation, made her the “first disciple” – and, as Christians, we are called to imitate her “fiat” in our own lives as we walk in fellowship with her son, Jesus. 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.”
For Father Dennison, as is true for all us priests, so much of his daily life was centered on the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, Father proclaimed Christ’s promises; he accepted and believed the words of Jesus — that eternal life is the gift that the Eucharist brings.
The Christ whom Arthur adored hidden in the host may he now contemplate face to face. Eternal Rest grant to him, O Lord; may his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.
