By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski during Mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary-St. Richard Parish for the blessing of the North Campus of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary-St. Richard School.
In our first reading, the prophet Habakkuk pleads, “How long, O Lord? I cry out for help, but you do not listen...” In the reading, God answers Habakkuk:
“For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late...”
Well after some patience and some hard work led by your principal, Floredenis Brown, in making necessary upgrades to the facility today we come to bless this “north annex” to Holy Rosary/St. Richard School. This campus will serve children from infancy to Pre-K 4. Congratulations to your Pastor, Father Yosbanni, Principal Brown, and to all you, teachers and parents!
I acknowledge also the presence of the Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese, Dr. Jim Rigg.
In today’s first reading, God assures Habakkuk, “...the just one, because of his faith, shall live.” But that doesn’t mean we don’t need patience, the patience of Job as we say as the apostles said to Jesus: “Lord, increase our faith.”
Now, the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith because he had been teaching them some hard truths. He had told them that scandals would come but warned them about giving scandal. And if someone would cause “one of these little ones to sin,” it would be better “if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea.” Then he spoke about the need to forgive. “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him... And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.” Sobering words. No wonder the apostles begged: Increase our faith.
Following Jesus is not for wimps. We might think – like the apostles did – that our faith is too small. But Jesus assures that even faith the size of a mustard seed can uproot a mulberry bush – a bush with an extensive root system.
What might seem impossible becomes possible even with mustard seed size faith.
66 years ago, Holy Rosary was established, and 56 years since St. Richard’s founding and almost 16 years since your two communities were merged. Let us give thanks for the mustard seeds of faith that have been planted here in the hearts of Christ’s faithful. Over the years, this parish community has survived some big challenges, But as they say, As they say, if the Lord takes us to it, he will take us through it. But thanks to mustard seed faith, we can look to the future with hope.
If that hope was based only on our strength, our own abilities, it wouldn’t be hope – it would be presumption. Our hope does not come from our wits or our own resources. The faith that strengthens us is not a belief in an ideology, a philosophy or an idea but belief in a person, Jesus Christ who is alive. He is our hope, “the Rock of our Salvation.”
In the Creed, we profess our faith in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Church is holy – not necessarily because all of us are holy – let’s just say that we are works in progress. The Church is holy because of the Spirit which has been given to us and has made us Sons and Daughters of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.
The Church exists for one reason: to preach the Gospel and call sinners that is, each one of us, to friendship in Jesus Christ.
We live in a time threatened by what Pope Benedict called the “dictatorship of relativism” and what Pope Francis has called the “ideological colonialization.” The ascendant secularism of our age is changing the way people think, the way they see reality. “Relativism”, “ideological colonialization”, “secularism” are all big 50-cent words; but they describe what happens when people think that they can organize their societies or live their lives as if God doesn’t matter.
Well, Holy Rosary-St. Richard and its school exist to show that God does matter. When people live as if God doesn’t matter, then the world quickly becomes like a dead, barren desert – a hopeless place, because a world without God is a world without hope. If what you do here is to show that God matters – and because God matters, every human being made in his image and likeness also matters, from the first moment of conception till natural death – then Holy Rosary-St. Richard will be an oasis where people can come and drink from the living waters of God’s grace and equip them, in the words of St. Paul in today’s second reading, “to bear our share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.”
Congratulations
