ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Jubilarians,
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

I welcome you today as we gather in this Sacred Liturgy and I offer my warm congratulations to you and your families and friends as you celebrate 25, 50, 60 or even more years of fidelity in the consecrated life. Your lives, your service and your dedication have touched countless souls and have brought them the uplifting grace of Jesus Christ. According to His own divine plan, the Lord uses us as poor instruments in His loving hands to accomplish the marvels of His saving power. I also congratulate the nuns in our cloistered communities who by their prayers and lives of selfless and quiet dedication assist in spreading God’s kingdom. We likewise remember our Jubilarians in retirement communities who cannot be physically present today. Our congratulations and prayerful best wishes go out to them.

For consecrated persons, for diocesan priests, as well as for married couples, jubilee days and anniversaries are occasions of twofold significance. They are times of thanksgiving for the gift of many years and manifold graces. Likewise, these events provide an opportunity to rededicate ourselves, to be renewed in following that inspiration, that first calling which led us to where we find ourselves today. So, the Church’s greeting to you today expresses congratulations, satisfaction for generous service and blessings for the future!

My dear brothers and sisters, our gathering of course takes place around the Lord’s altar where we hear His word, receive His Body and Blood, and are filled with those gifts He ardently wants to share with us. The Church’s liturgy this Sunday unfolds a treasure indeed. It speaks to us so clearly of God’s tender love and mercy—love and mercy that have touched our lives in our respective callings, and love and mercy that constitute our evangelical mission to all of God’s people. Our late beloved Pope John Paul II reminds us clearly that “the sense of mission is at the very heart of consecrated life”(Vita Consecrata, 25) and that “...the Church must consider it one of her principal duties at every stage of history and especially in our own modern age—to proclaim and introduce into life the mystery of mercy, supremely revealed in Jesus Christ” (Dives in Misericordia, 14).

In our first reading from Exodus, we encounter Moses pleading with God for mercy for His unfaithful children. Out of love God had chosen the people of Israel, but they spurned His love and followed their own senseless path. For their infidelity they rightly deserved God’s wrath and punishment. Yet, Moses acts as mediator petitioning God’s indulgence and forgiveness. As we witness this scene, can we not leap ahead to Calvary and to Jesus’ words, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”? The dying Jesus, this new Moses, lifted high upon the cross is the perfect mediator, the true bearer of God’s forgiving and tender compassion. It is Christ’s mission of forgiveness that all Christians are called to share with God’s people. Simply put, we are called to be living signs of God’s care and mercy as we strive to fulfill our own vocation in life.

In the second reading, Saint Paul writes to Timothy. Reflecting upon what he states, we are struck by how relevant his thoughts become for all called to service in God’s Church. Paul declares: “I am grateful to him who has strengthened me.” Thousands of times in our prayers Paul’s words express a sentiment deep in our souls, the experience of gratitude for the Lord’s strength that comes to us in our weakness. Paul goes on to say: “...he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry.” Can we not understand that, by calling us to serve His people in religious commitment, God trusts us in a special way? And yet, must we not admit that we have, at times, wavered in fidelity to that trust? Still, Saint Paul reassures us stating, “I have been mercifully treated.” We also have been mercifully treated, and so like Moses and Paul, we find ourselves fortified by God’s grace to pass that mercy on to others. Such is our calling and the understanding of why the Gospel message is truly “Good News.” Paul’s advice to Timothy penetrates even deeper: “Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” The English translation of the Scripture limps here; the original text speaks of God’s grace, not just as abundant, but as super-abundant. Dear Jubilarians, we rejoice today in this super-abundant grace of the Lord Jesus.

God’s word reaches a crescendo in the Gospel parables of Luke. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to go in search of the one sheep who has strayed. We have to ask if this is typical behavior. Why risk losing any of the others just to go after this one? What is the reason; what is the key to this way of acting? It is that this one sheep is precious, very precious. Notice the shepherd’s reaction when he finds the stray sheep. He sets it on his shoulders with great happiness and he calls together the others to rejoice with him. Rejoicing fills the day.

As an example for ourselves, we may transpose this parable in speaking of Saint Paul himself. Paul was once that stray sheep. Overwhelmed by God’s grace, Paul was found and carried upon the shoulders of the Lord. Paul, the persecutor, becomes a precious instrument for accomplishing God’s plan. He is entrusted with the commission to share what the Lord has done for him with others in his Gospel ministry. The notion of something precious carries over into Luke’s second parable, the description of the lost coin.

From the stray sheep and lost coin, we turn our attention to the depiction of the Prodigal Son. It has been observed that this narrative could be called the parable of the Merciful Father. In dramatic and visible fashion, this poignant tale sums up the themes of all the Scripture passages of today. Saint Luke’s picturesque portrayal of this family situation provides an insight into our own frail position.

The two sons manifest opposite polarities of our fallen nature. In one of them we discern the desire for the fulfillment of life, the drive to enjoy all that we can capture without restraint and on our own terms. Nevertheless, the desired fulfillment does not occur; it is elusive. In the other one, we recognize doing what has to be done, but yet without a sense of care and compassion for others. We see a lack of the human sentiment without which God’s gift of life becomes cold and sterile.

As Saint Luke depicts these two sons, we see the younger son undergoing a painful journey of self-realization. Having partaken of manifold worldly pleasures, he experiences the emptiness of his existence and accepts his personal loss of dignity. With no sensible alternative to choose, he decides to return home, and resigned to his fate, to confess his unworthiness before his father. Beyond all expectation, what awaits him is a shower of compassion and merciful acceptance. A similar personal awakening has not yet touched the soul of his older brother, and, until it does, the hardness of his feelings will continue as an obstacle to his inner peace.

Central to the Gospel’s narrative, there emerges the figure of the merciful father who puts up with his sons when they are delinquent and foolish or seemingly faithful but obstinate. Filled with fatherly affection, he welcomes the returning prodigal son and unconditionally forgives him, tenderly embracing and kissing him. His compassion extends also to the brother with whom he pleads to soften the hardness of his heart. Jesus’ telling of this parable allows us to see God’s loving embrace as the merciful, forgiving father, and like the shepherd, one who joyfully carries the stray sheep on his shoulders. Rejoicing marks the day as the Father says: “But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again, he was lost and he is found.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, on this Jubilee day with the lessons of the Scriptures before us, we humbly invoke the intercession of Mary our Mother, Mother of Mercy, and our own special patrons, Saint John Neumann and Saint Katharine Drexel, authentic examples of compassion and mercy. Likewise, in our moments of prayer and reflection, as we contemplate the super-abundant love of God generously poured forth upon each of us, we can rejoice in knowing that we are indeed precious in His sight.

As the Lord has privileged us to serve His people for the many years that have marked our lives, let our hearts overflow with sentiments of joy and gratitude. From the depths of our souls may we continue to love, nurture and serve God’s people. As the Lord has carried us, so must we continue to carry one another with great rejoicing. Amen.