Full transcript of the homily delivered by Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley at the St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica on Tuesday:
Pope Francis has sent me here today because 450 years ago the Gospel of Jesus Christ came to the shores. Adelantado Pedro Menéndez de Avilés first spied this land on the feast of St. Augustine, August 28, 1565. Padre Francisco López offered the first Mass on this soil on the feast of the Nativity of Mary, September 8, launching what is the oldest European city in the United States.
How fitting that this new beginning would be initiated by celebrating a birthday party. Mary's birthday is the beginning of the Church, because she is Jesus' first disciple. Indeed the very day chosen to celebrate her birthday was the old New Year's Day in the Empire of Byzantium. It truly is a new beginning. Mary's birth is part of God's final preparations for the coming of the Messiah.
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For over 1,000 years the Gospel read for this feast day is that of the genealogy of Jesus from the Gospel of St. Matthew. I was told by the organizers of the liturgy that we would take the shorter version of the Gospel. It reminded me of a book review which appeared many years ago in the Washington Post commenting on Reader's Digest publishing Bible. The reviewer wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, but the word was too long so Reader's Digest abridged it." Personally I always like the full genealogy to be read as long as there is a Deacon to read the Gospel, and I don't have to struggle through those difficult to pronounce Old Testament names.
Our Gospel today begins with the conclusion of the genealogy that makes it clear that Joseph is the foster father of Jesus. For after the long lists of fathers who begot fathers, come Joseph who is described as "the husband of Mary and of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ."
The Gospel goes on to say that Mary was found with child through the Holy Spirit. I often tell people that my favorite American Theologian is Archie Bunker. Once Archie was having a discussion with his son-in-law Meathead and let slip an anti-Semitic remark. Meathead reacted immediately and scolded Archie saying: Archie, you should be ashamed of yourself. Remember Jesus was a Jew." Archie without missing a beat said: "Yes, but only on his mother's side." Mary is the daughter of Zion, who represents the longing of those many generations of faithful Jews waiting for the Messiah.
Today's Gospel is sometimes called the Annunciation of St. Joseph, because God speaks to Joseph in dreams. When I became Bishop in Palm Beach I was visiting one of the parishes for the first time and asked the pastor how big the parish church was. He told me, my church sleeps 700. Actually there are four episodes in the Gospels where God communicates with St. Joseph in his sleep, and so it is consoling for a preacher to think that God might communicate with yawning parishioners during a sermon in which they have dozed off. In the Acts of the Apostles a young man called Eutychus was sitting on the windowsill in the third story of a building listening to one of St. Paul's very long sermons, when he fell asleep and plunged to his death. Fortunately St. Paul was able to restore the young man to life, but it is very presumptuous to thing that every preacher who gives a boring sermon has those same miraculous powers. So it's better to stay awake.
Joseph knew that Jesus was a miracle so he could take Mary into his home as his wife.
Once a journalist interviewing Larry King asked him: "Mr. King, if you could interview any personage from history, who would you want to interview? Larry King without missing a beat said: "I would interview Jesus Christ." The journalist then said: "What would you ask him? To which Larry replied: "I would ask him if He was born of a Virgin. The answer to that question for me, would define history."
For Joseph as for all believers, the answer does define history. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Redeemer.
In his dreams God communicated to Joseph: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is thru the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. All this has taken place to fulfill the prophecy: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, God is with us."
Today's feast is also the feast of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, the patroness of Cuba which was my first public Mass that I celebrated with the Cuban community in Washington D.C. In its early years this diocese was part of the diocese of Santiago de Cuba, where the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity is located; and it was here in St. Augustine that the great Cuban patriot and exemplary priest, Father Felix Varela received his early formation from an Irish missionary Padre Miguel O'Reilly. We all look forward to the day when we will be able to say St. Felix Varela.
When Pope Benedict visited New York, he said Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Holy Father commented on the stain glass windows. He noted that from the outside the windows seemed opaque, dreary and foreboding, but once you are inside the church, then you can see the colors, shapes and splendid light that illumines the temple and convey beautiful pictures.
From the outside our religion can seem foreboding and mysterious, but to be inside the Church is to experience the community of faith, the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus, and the excitement of a mission that challenges us to build a civilization of love. Our task is to invite people into the world of our faith to glimpse the beauty of a life of discipleship.
I often tell people about one of our churches on Martha's Vineyard where I was Bishop for ten years. The church of St. Augustine has beautiful stained glass windows which represent the seven sacraments. As you enter the church, the first window you see is the window with symbols of the Sacrament of Confession: the crossed keys, a priest's stole used when hearing confessions and the words: "Go and sin no more." The church is not air conditioned and in the summer it gets hot so they open all the windows. On that particular window, the only pane that opens is where the word 'no' is written, so the tourists enter the church and read: "Go and sin more!" In my ten years as bishop of that place I never received one complaint.
The irony is that so often people think of the Catholic Church as the "Church of no", but in reality we are the Church of 'yes'. Yes to God, to life, to love, to community, to service, to forgiveness.
Our Church began because Mary said yes to God. Mother Teresa used to always say: "Give God permission." That is precisely what Mary does. When God is knocking on the door of humanity, it is Mary who opens that door in our name.
Mary is a woman of few words in the Gospel. Mary's first words are heard at the Annunciation when God asks her to be the Mother of the Redeemer. Mary says yes: "Be it done unto me according to thy word." That word changed the course of history.
In our own lives and our own struggles, we must give God permission as Mary did. Mary's first word in the Gospel is her yes to God, her last words recorded in the Gospel appear in John's Gospel, the account of the Wedding Feast of Cana, now the second luminous mystery of the Rosary, where Mary tells us to say yes to God: "Do whatever He tells you." They are the words that I have written on my bishop's ring as a reminder of Mary's advice and appeal to us to be doers of the word.
In the last 450 years many people have come to these shores to accomplish many things. Some were seeking gold and glory. Others were searching for the fountain of youth -maybe that's why so many senior citizens follow Ponce de Leon's footsteps. Others have come as immigrants seeking freedom, opportunities, and a better life for their children. Others came with the desire to bring the Good News of the Gospel and build a civilization of love; and some came against their will.
In this Mass we celebrate in a special way those who came here in response to Jesus' great commissioning that sent His disciples to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Good News and to baptize new brothers and sisters in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We celebrate the martyrs of Florida who laid down their lives for the mission that Christ and His Church entrusted to them.
It was my privilege to serve as a Bishop in this state and experience first-hand the energy and growth of our community of faith here. There are so many dedicated clergy, religious and laity saying their yes to God in this place. This celebration is one of thanksgiving for the blessings of the past and the generous and faith filled people who have gone before us, but it is also a moment to rededicate ourselves to the mission.
Pope Francis has captured the imagination of the world by reminding us of the Joy of the Gospel. He challenges us to overcome the globalization of indifference, to go to the periphery following the priorities of the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 in pursuit of the one lost sheep. The Holy Father has told us our Church is not a museum or a concert hall; our Church is a field hospital and we are the orderlies called on to do triage in a world strewn with wounded people.
The Holy Father challenges us to embrace our mission which is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people. The world was stunned when Pope Francis during a Wednesday audience in St. Peter Square, waded into the crowd to embrace and kiss a terrible deformed man who was there. Afterward the man told reporters how people often refuse to sit near him on the bus and how the Pope's kindness to him was like experiencing Christ's unconditional love.
Pope Francis says sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord's wounds at arm's length. Yet Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering of others; He hopes that we will stop looking for those niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human suffering and enter instead into the reality of people's lives and know the power of tenderness.