By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski's homily at the Installation Mass of Msgr. Dariusz Zielonka as pastor of St. Pius X Parish. Sept. 7, 2025.
Well, I am back here at St. Pius X, to formally install another pastor. Msgr. Zielonka, of course, has been here already more than a year, as administrator. Now, we give a new title, it’s official he is your pastor. New title, but the same job description, the same headaches, and – the same salary.
The Scripture readings today are challenging. They require that we give them careful thought – and pray over them.
In the first reading, the author of the Book of Wisdom says “scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out”. In other words, we should not be surprised that we have trouble figuring out the intentions of God when we have so much trouble figuring each other out. If people are puzzling to us – and we are puzzles to ourselves as well – then how much more can God be puzzling? Even though he revealed himself to us through his Holy Spirit, we never can claim to fully understand the mystery that is God. We have much to figure out.
In the second reading, Paul is trying to figure out how to send an escape slave back to his master – but in a way that Philemon received Onesimus not as a slave but as a brother in Christ.
And, in the gospel, there is much figuring out to do as well. Jesus tells his followers that they have to figure out the cost of discipleship. Both parables – that of the construction builder and that of the king deploying his troops for battle – make the same point. Much of our lives involve figuring out what is within our reach and what we can realistically achieve. Consider what you are getting into, see if you really are up to the task.
Jesus does not want us to rush headlong into instant commitment while ignoring the cost and our own capabilities. That’s why is takes so long to train a priest: about ten years of seminary formation. And that’s also why we insist on a time of preparation: OCIA for those entering into the faith, Formation classes for the Sacraments. And we do have to do better at this, especially when forming young people for marriage.
We have to embrace our commitments with eyes wide open. And Jesus uses Semitic hyperbole to drive home his point: “if anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple”.
To be sure, to hear the same Jesus who tells us to love our enemies tell us that we must hate our parents and families can be a bit jarring to some unfamiliar with Semitic idioms.
But to be a disciple of Jesus means simply that he is to be preferred before all others. To answer Jesus’ call, “Follow me,” is both a gift and a demanding task only possible through conversion of our minds and hearts, a conversion that allows us to embrace the cross and to see the world as Jesus sees it.
If we are to follow Jesus, it must be on his terms — and not on ours. To walk in the company of Jesus means the giving up of self-interest and competing loyalties.
Grace is God’s free gift to us — but it is not cheap; grace is costly — it cost Jesus dearly — his suffering and death on the cross.
Discipleship is a call to walk in the shadow of a master who makes his way of love with a cross on his back. You cannot do that casually.
And basically, Jesus tells his disciples (and us) the same thing. Jesus did not come to suffer and die for us and to rise from the dead just to make us half-hearted mediocre disciples hesitant to follow him wherever he would lead.
To follow Jesus will take us out of our comfort zones. Following Jesus will often be inconvenient because it will require us to give up our priorities, our preferences, in order to conform ourselves to his priorities and his preferences.
To be a disciple of Jesus means that he is to be preferred before all others. To answer Jesus’ call, “Follow me,” is both a gift and a demanding task only possible through conversion of our minds and hearts, a conversion that allows us to embrace the cross and to see the world as Jesus sees it. Your pastor, Msgr. Zielonka is to teach you — by word and example — how to figure out how to be a disciple of Jesus.
Religious leadership is about leading others to Christ. It cannot be reduced to “smiles and styles.” The authority of a pastor is not about leading others to himself but to the Lord. He is not to point to himself but to point always to Christ.
As your pastor, Msgr. Dariusz Zielonka, is entrusted with the “care of your souls,” what in Latin is called the “cura animarum.”
Father will serve you well. And he will do so not by calling attention to himself, but by calling attention to the Lord; he will do so not by seeking his own interests, but by putting first God’s will and his people’s good and well-being; he will do so not by trying to please everyone — for one who tries to do that usually ends up pleasing no one; but rather, he will do so by trying to please the Lord in all things and above all things.
To paraphrase the great St. Augustine: “With you he is a Christian, a Catholic; for you he is a leader, a pastor of souls.”
And as your pastor, he is tasked to help you “figure it all out” so that in embracing the cost of discipleship you will by God’s grace enter into Eternal Life.
