ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Your Eminence, Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington,

Your brother Cardinals and Bishops are very pleased to be here with you and our President, Bishop Wilton Gregory, in this National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in the Archdiocese of Washington, together with so many priests, religious and laity, and in particular with Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, representing our Holy Father Pope John Paul II, to whom we are joined closely in prayer and with filial affection.  We are pleased, in the course of the annual November Bishops Meeting, to gather, above all with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is His great act of praise and intercession for the Church.

In the Gospels we find that Jesus is extremely conscious of being loved by His Father, whom He loves in return and who is always close to Him.  Jesus says: "I am not alone."  He is conscious of the Father's presence.  The Father and Jesus act together (cf. Jn 8:16).

Our liturgy today speaks about the identity of Jesus as the Son of God.  Today's feast is the memorial of Pope Saint Leo the Great (440-461), an intrepid defender and proclaimer of the divine personhood of Jesus Christ, in whom both the human nature and the divine nature come together.  Saint Leo, during the years of his pontificate, kept alive the testimony of the Apostle Peter that we find in the Gospel this evening: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  And now, almost 1550 years after Pope Leo, John Paul II ceaselessly proclaims to Jesus, in the name of all of us:  "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

So very recently on the 25^th anniversary of his pontificate, our Holy Father recalled the many times he has proclaimed these words, the many times he has renewed, before the world, the faith of Peter, the faith of Leo, the faith of all their successors in the divinity of Christ, which is our holy Catholic faith.

In the Gospel we have heard proclaimed, Jesus perceives a growing hostility to Him and a lack of understanding of who He is.  In this situation He wants His disciples to take a stand on His identity.  And so He says: "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"  They replied: "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."  He then said to them: "But who do you say that I am?"  And at this point came the reply of Simon Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

For all these centuries the Church has meditated on these words, clarifying both the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ.  With Saint Leo the Great we have learned to say that Jesus is "consubstantial with His Father and consubstantial with His Mother."  In other words, He is divine like His Father and human like His Mother and like us.  The Church summarizes this in her beautiful prayer:  "Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man."

Saint Matthew joins to the Confession of Saint Peter the promise of Jesus to found His Church on Peter.  The Messiah, whom Peter acknowledges and also confesses as the Son of God, cannot be understood without His people.  And so Jesus promises to found His Church-the people of the New Covenant-on the one who, through the power of the Father, acknowledges and confesses His identity.  Saint Matthew gives us these wonderful words of Jesus: "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

All of this signifies that great power was given to Peter.  I remember many years ago hearing Pope Paul VI comment on this text.  He explained that Peter and his successors were given special powers to serve the community of the Church, but for each one it was to last only for a season.  Jesus reserved to Himself the ultimate power over the Church.  Pope Paul VI explained beautifully how Jesus considered the Church to be forever His.  In repeating the words of Jesus, Paul VI emphasized one word:  "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church."  All of us have the privilege of serving the Church and her mission of evangelization.  We know that there is an urgency in our efforts, efforts which the Lord accepts and utilizes, but they are only for a season.

The Lord Jesus governs His Church, season after season, through the successors of Peter together with the other apostles.  Pope Leo has told us that just as what Peter believed about Jesus is always true, so what Jesus gave to Peter will always endure.

If we read on in the 16^th chapter of Saint Matthew's Gospel we see that Jesus is not only the anointed Messiah, who is the Son of God, but He is also the Suffering Servant of the Lord, who indeed requires us to accept Him as our crucified and risen Savior.  We must belong to Him in the Church built upon the rock of Peter, who has received from Christ a mission and the power to fulfill it.  With Peter we must likewise repent of any past infidelity.

Today at this sacred liturgy in the context of their annual November meeting the Bishops of the United States gather together, as servants of truth and teachers of the faith, in communion with the Successor of Peter.  They gather together with representatives of the whole people of God in an exhilarating hour of Catholic unity here in this National Shrine, as they experience also the presence of the Mother of Jesus.

It is a blessing for the Bishops to be together.  Together they find support since their gathering corresponds to Christ's plan to form His Apostles into a group, known as the Apostolic College.

It is wonderful for the Bishops to be together with so many of their priests, through whom they are assisted to fulfill their ministry.  The Second Vatican Council reminds the Church that it is through the Bishops, together with their priests, that the Lord Jesus Christ is present in the midst of His people (cf. Lumen Gentium, 21).

But it is also wonderful for the Bishops to be together in prayer and worship with so many members of the people of God-religious and laity.

Today, dear friends, we assemble with Jesus as His Church.  We are the diverse members of His Body.  Today we honor the plan of the Eternal Father for the structure of His Church, built upon Peter and the other Apostles, perpetuated through the ministry of the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him, and sustained by the people of God.  This gives us a deep insight into the importance of our liturgical assembly this evening.

As a community of faith and prayer, a community of love and service, we face together the many challenges present in the Church and in the world.  We gather to pray for and commit ourselves, for example, to the great need of forming and supporting holy families, and of perpetuating the priesthood and promoting vocations to it.  We gather together to thank God for the recent Partial Birth Abortion ban and to recommit ourselves to the defense, support and protection of human dignity and human life at every stage, from conception to natural death.

Even as we serve others, we are conscious of the Holy Father's call to us as Bishops-his call to holiness in our lives and ministry.  Here too we count on the prayerful support of the people of God.  For even as we pray and strive for holiness we know that we cannot wait to attain full holiness before encouraging others to do so.  And in this way we move forward with humility and resolution, asking once again for the generous and persevering help of the people of God.

In his recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, signed on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his election, Pope John Paul II reflected on this theme:  The Bishop, Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World.  In this Exhortation he pointed out both the duty and the needs of the Bishops of the Church, appealing both to them and to the people of God.  He said:  "The duty of Bishops at the beginning of a new millennium is thus clearly marked out.  It is the same duty as ever: to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, the salvation of the world.  But it is a duty which has a new urgency and which calls for cooperation and commitment on the part of the whole People of God.  The Bishop needs to be able to count on the members of his diocesan presbyterate and on his deacons, the ministers of the Blood of Christ and of charity; he needs to be able to count on his consecrated sisters and brothers, called to be for the Church and the world eloquent witnesses of the primacy of God in the Christian life and the power of his love amid the frailty of the human condition; and he needs to be able to count on the lay faithful, whose greater scope for the apostolate represents for their pastors a source of particular support and a reason for special comfort.

"At the conclusion of these reflections, we appreciate how the theme of the Tenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops leads each of us Bishops back to all our brothers and sisters in the Church and to all the men and women of the world.  Christ sends us to them, even as he once sent the Apostles (cf. Mt 28:19-20).  We need to become, for each and every person, in an outstanding and visible way, a living sign of Jesus Christ, Teacher, Priest and Pastor."

In doing this, the Bishop will constantly-with Peter, Leo and John Paul II-proclaim Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God and the Suffering and Victorious Servant of the Lord.And as he does so, the Bishop will realize that, like Jesus, he is not alone.  The Father is with him.  And in the power of the Holy Spirit the people of God are one with him as he is one with them and with the College of Bishops and its Head, John Paul II whom Christ has called to be His servant Vicar on earth.  Amen.