My first words are for you, jubilarians, who come together to celebrate your Golden Wedding Anniversary with your family and friends and the Church. Yes, I want to say “congratulations; we are proud of you”, but equally I want to say, “thank you.” Thank you for witnessing in a unique way to the power of God’s grace. You are a testament to a core value of our faith, that we are a people on pilgrimage, whom the Lord accompanies along the way, guiding us with his light when the path is uncertain, coming back for us when we stray, encouraging us when we grow weary of taking up the journey time and again. He has walked with you since the day you took each other for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health.

The Gospel today features Peter. He is called to mature in his faith, to come to know Jesus as the Messiah, who is with those who suffer. As you sit here today, I invite you to think of the many times in your marriage that you have come to mature in your faith, how you have been forced to stretch, to adapt along the journey and come to know this Jesus walking beside you in your sufferings, in the twists and turns along the road of life. He has walked with you, picked you up in moments of heartache and tragedy - a financial collapse, or sudden illness, disappointment in yourself or another or worst of all, the death of a child. He has emboldened you to take up the journey again and all the while your faith in Him has deepened and matured and you have acquired a wisdom no school can teach.

In this particular moment, the Church, and especially we, the leaders, need this wisdom, the wisdom of experienced travelers, seasoned pilgrims such as you who have come to know the real Jesus, the real Messiah. That wisdom has taught you to be honest about the human condition, human mistakes and human frailty no matter how shameful.  That wisdom knows the purifying power of sunlight, of candor in facing issues head on, confident that Jesus will not abandon us for he has travelled on that very same way, the way of the cross. It is a wisdom that we now need to face front and center a corrupt culture of elitism, where some in the Church become convinced they have all the answers and when they make mistakes, they are protected and privileged, and cannot be held accountable or responsible.

Over my 43 years as a priest I have been enriched personally by the wisdom of experienced pilgrims. In fact, I first entered that school of wisdom in my own family. Shortly after I was ordained in 1975, my grandmother told me the story of my grandparents’ decision to place their daughter Roseann in a care facility. Aunt Roseann had severe mental and physical disabilities, and as she grew older she put on weight, slipped into early dementia and became uncontrollably irascible. Roseann was simply too much for my aging grandparents to handle. They found a nearby care home that could meet Roseann’s needs and decided to let their pastor know she would soon be moving there. Monsignor had been their parish priest for many years. Grandma occasionally cooked for him and frequently he had been to their home for dinner. After they explained their decision, he gave this reply, "You cannot do this. This is wrong. God would not want you to abandon your daughter in this time of need."

Crestfallen, they made their way back home. Midway, my grandfather broke the silence: "Well, Ma, now what are we going to do?"  Grandma serenely responded, "Tomorrow, we are going to pack up the car with Roseann's things and take her to the home." "But what about what Monsignor told us," Grandpa asked. Grandma simply said, "Monsignor doesn't have to live with Roseann."

I am fairly certain that grandma, a 5'4'' immigrant who spoke broken English and had no more than a sixth-grade education, was making sure I understood that the seminary isn't the only place to learn how to be a priest. She was sending me a message that I should pay attention to the real everyday experiences of people for it is there they encounter Jesus, the Messiah who knows suffering, who is honest about human limitations and only wants us to be true and real.

I am convinced that now more than ever the Church’s leaders need to return to this school of acquired wisdom, to mature in their faith by paying attention to the real-life experiences of people, where human suffering encounters the Suffering Messiah and not turn away like some of the early disciples or even worse today, place their own interests above the harm done to children.

Last evening, I prayed with those who gathered for the close of the Novena, praying in solidarity with victim-survivors of clerical sexual abuse. I told the community that this is a watershed moment for the Catholic community, a moment especially for the leaders of the Church to mature in their faith. It is a moment to put aside the counterfeit Messiah, who doesn’t know suffering, lest anyone in the Church becomes satisfied in their position of power and privilege, confident in their influence and valued by the honors given them.

I continue to be grateful for people like my grandparents, for good folks like you jubilarians and countless others who have kept me real, unafraid of human suffering, undaunted to tell the truth and be candid in moments of shame and repentance. My commitment to you is to keep on learning, to return time and again to that school of wisdom so many have acquired.

A week ago yesterday, the president of a Catholic university phoned me and told me that he was afraid that with all that is going on in the Church, the terrible stories about mishandling of abuse, the students would not show up for the Mass scheduled to open the school year. He was shocked by the turnout. The crowd was larger than ever before. He talked to some students afterwards to share his surprise at the high attendance and ask what was going on. To a person the students simply replied, “Father, it’s our Church too.”

Each of us has a stake in the future of the Church. Today, your presence here is a witness to the core value of our faith, that Jesus walks with us along this pilgrimage, and that we come to know him as the real Messiah in our own sufferings and heartaches. I am grateful for that witness, grateful for the sacrifices that have matured your faith and your lives together. But, I am also grateful for all the youthful voices in our Church, for they like you remind us all that “this is our Church too.”

For the Spanish version of the homily, please click here.