By Currents News
At the ordination and installation as the sixth bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami gave the homily.
Below is the full text:
Today this local Church of Palm Beach will witness the episcopal ordination of its new chief shepherd and “high” priest. And at 6 foot seven inches tall he is certainly a high priest. So, as he assumes his new duties as the sixth bishop of this local Church, I believe that – with God’s grace and your support and prayers – he will not be “in over his head.”
I welcome the bishop-elect’s relatives and friends who have traveled here, including priests and former parishioners from the Diocese of Brooklyn. Bienvenidos a los que han venido desde la Republica Dominicana. The Gold Coast of Florida has been described as the sixth borough of New York City. So Bishop Rodriguez will quickly come to feel at home here among the palm trees and warm breezes that will also remind him of the Dominican Republic, the land of his birth.
Also, a special welcome to the bishops who will join me in the laying of hands through which Bishop-elect Rodriguez becomes a successor of the apostles and a member of the College of Bishops.
Joining us and representing the Holy Father is the Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. Cardinal Pierre, the clergy and the people of Palm Beach thank Pope Leo for the gift of this new shepherd.
And a special word of thanks to Bishop Gerald Barbarito. Thank you for your years of service to the people of the Diocese of Palm Beach. As I tell a priest when he retires, retirement means you can be occupied as much as you wish to be without being preoccupied by the demands of administration. You can take some holy pride in your stewardship of this diocese; and your work here for the Church of Palm has borne much good fruit. Your priestly integrity has brought much healing to this local Church,
My dear people, when Pope Leo appointed Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez as your new bishop, the promise God made through the prophet Jeremiah is once again fulfilled: “I will give you shepherds after my own heart. (Jeremiah 3: 15)
Like the Good Shepherd himself, Bishop Rodriguez will strive to lay down his life for you, the sheep of his new flock. And, in the days, months and years ahead, you will come to know him, and he will come to know you.
As the image of God, the Father and the vicar of Christ in a particular Church, the bishop, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, “is called in a particular way to be a prophet, witness and servant of hope.” This task of a bishop perhaps is more daunting than ever because of the relativism and subjectivism which mar so much of contemporary culture. Indeed, the ascendant secularism of our age, by closing the doors to the Infinite and thus to the source of all hope, is changing how people perceive reality, leaving them confused as to why they live and about how they should live their lives. We see signs of this loss of hope all around us. We see it in some people’s seemingly insatiable appetite for illegal drugs, fleeting pleasures or elusive riches. Without hope, people do not make any enduring or lasting commitments to the future by responding to the call of a religious or priestly vocation or to the call of the project called marriage and a family. And a society that exiles God by reducing religion to the “private” and belief to merely subjective opinion expels hope from its midst.
And while globalization has made us all neighbors it has not made us brothers and sisters. The “globalization of indifference” increasingly closes our hearts to the other: the stranger, the immigrant, are seen as threats and the weak and vulnerable as inconvenient nuisances.
A bishop, through his triple “munera” of teaching, sanctifying and governing, is to be a “prophet, witness and servant” of that hope that will never disappoint, the hope that has a human face: Jesus Christ. Through the preaching of the Gospel, through the celebration of the sacred liturgy, through works of charity, under the leadership and oversight of their pastor, the Christian community shows the world that God does matter; and in doing so offers the world in Christ a future of hope.
A servant of Jesus Christ for the hope of the world, the bishop must therefore be filled with the courage of humility; not asking what prevailing opinion says about him but following the criterion of God’s truth and taking his stand accordingly, whether opportune or not. A bishop seeks to “discern wherever he exercises his ministry, the signs of life which are able to uproot the seeds of destruction and death. Hope sustains him as he transforms conflicts themselves into an opportunity for growth and for reconciliation.” (Pastores Gregis)
My brother, Manuel de Jesus, the liturgy of episcopal ordination interprets the essential features of a bishop’s ministry in the questions which I will shortly pose to you. “Do you resolve…?” I will ask you eight times. Each question solicits from you a statement of your intention, your willingness to undertake what is being asked of you; and each question points out a path for you to follow in the exercise of your episcopal ministry: And what is asked of you? What are those paths to be followed? You are asked to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to go ahead of and lead God’s people; you are asked to teach the sacred heritage of our past; to defend and promote the doctrinal unity of the faithful; to show mercy and charity to the needy and the poor; you are asked to pray without ceasing. These questions set before you a road map, or itinerary, to be followed in the exercise of your episcopal office.
My dear people, the call to the order of the episcopate is a complete abandonment to the mystery of the cross, to the mystery of love. It is dying to self. To cite St. Augustine with you he is a Christian but for you he is a Bishop. Respect him, love him, obey him, and pray for him that his ministry as bishop among you will be fruitful.