By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily Sept. 4, 2018, at St. Mary Cathedral, at the funeral Mass for Father Daniel Kubala, longtime pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Miami and founding director of the Respect Life Ministry in the archdiocese. He died Aug. 31, 2018.
First, I wish to express my condolences to Father Kubala’s siblings who join us today for this Mass of Christian burial: his brother, Walter Kubala and his wife, and Father Dan’s sister, Genevieve Stine. Father Kubala was Sophie Kubala’s last child – and his siblings were in their teens when he was born.
My condolences, as well, to Father Kubala’s many friends – and to his collaborators in the pro-life ministry as well as to his former parishioners from St. Thomas and St. Matthew who today mourn the loss of a priest, a confessor, a confidant – a pastor of souls and “Father.” Last night and today so many of you have come to offer prayers. Your presence is a testimony that – even though he had been retired for over a year after his accident that left him paralyzed – he was not forgotten. And who could forget Father Kubala? Thank you for remembering him today in the stories you tell about him – there are humorous stories of his eccentricities (the birds, the animals…) but there are also great stories of the much good he did in his ministry as a Catholic priest (bedside vigils with the dying, his mission trips to Cuba and the Galapagos, his dedication to the school); and please remember him always – as we do today – in fervent prayer for the repose of his soul.
I can assure you that the priests who gather here to bid farewell to their brother in the presbyterate of this local Church are edified by your presence today – and by your love for Father Kubala. We are also joined by Father Tim Whalen, a priest of Pittsburg, whose friendship with Dan goes back to their seminary days. 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, in spite of our shortcomings and human frailty.
Since the day he and I were ordained together by Archbishop Coleman Carroll, we were good friends. 42 years! It was a friendship that even survived my becoming his Archbishop eight years ago. But Dan genuinely liked bishops – I remember at the celebration of his 25th he had about ten bishops in attendance. We don’t have ten bishops here today, but let’s just say it’s a respectable number.
But we all loved him and we will all miss him; we grieve –and we each grieve in our own way. But grieve we must; for grief is the pain of letting go. In letting go of Dan, of Father Kubala, we entrust him 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.
Yet, 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 Dan Kubala, as it is true for each one of us and as it was true for Saint Peter and the Apostles. Simon Peter told Jesus, “Depart from me for I am a sinner.” Nevertheless, Jesus chose him as he chose Father Kubala and as he has chosen these priests.
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 Kubala was, every priest here is privileged to serve God and his people in this awesome vocation of the holy priesthood. And in spite of 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 this past year, Father was also called to an intimate sharing in our Lord’s agony and passion, as he dealt with the consequences of that fall that left him a paraplegic.
Yet, while God doesn’t call the most qualified, he does wish 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.”
The bread he gives us is his very self – as we have heard proclaimed in the gospel reading. 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 eat the Body of Christ to become what we receive.
For Father Kubala, as is true for all us priests, so much of his daily life was centered on the Eucharist. At St. Thomas, he promoted Perpetual Adoration and led by the example of his own Holy Hour each day. 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.
Jesus said: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” The Christ whom Dan Kubala adored hidden in the host may he now contemplate face to face.
