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Declaración del Cardenal Cupich

Homily of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich for the Episcopal Ordinations at Holy Name Cathedral

September 17, 2018

My first words of welcome are to the parents and families of Bishops Bartosic, Casey and Hicks.  Your son, brother and uncle will need you now more than ever. Stay close to him and pray every day for him.

I am also honored that Pope Francis is with us today in the person of his representative. Welcome, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. Please let the Holy Father know of our deep affection and enthusiastic support. Your participation today is also a reminder to us all, especially the bishops present here, how we are united with each other and with “the one chosen by the Lord to be the Successor of Peter" (Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops). 

I want to warmly greet all of you joining in this moment in the life of the Church. You know first-hand how God has so richly blessed these men before us today. Their youthfulness is a reminder that Christ is always doing something new and ever calling us to change and follow Him more closely.

The Word of God invites us to join in Solomon’s prayer for wisdom as he assumes leadership of God’s people. Solomon has every earthly possession, power and position. Yet, there is one thing he cannot attain on his own: wisdom. He must beg for it. Wisdom is so different and otherworldly that it makes all the gold in the world seem to be a little sand and silver, like the mud on our shoes. We, the leaders in the Church, whose failures are on full display in these days, are like Solomon. We come today as beggars in need of wisdom.

We beg for wisdom as we celebrate Holy Orders, the sacrament which reveals in word and symbol how Church life should be properly ordered for the three-fold ministry of proclaiming the Word, tending the flock and mediating the presence of God’s holiness in our midst to be genuine and life-giving.

Proclaiming the Word, Jesus tells us, is more than speaking in his name. Rather, as Pope Francis teaches us, preaching and proclaiming God’s Word is fundamentally about inviting people into the dialogue God is already having with them.   It is not simply about repeating the words of Jesus, reciting doctrinal formulas from the catechism or invoking canon law in a way that places heavy burdens on others. Rather, a pastor’s aim should be to draw people into a dialogue with God, modeling the art of listening and discernment. “We have been called to form consciences, not replace them,” as Pope Francis urges. (Amoris Laetitia 37).

This means looking on people the way Jesus did, with deep respect for all as fellow pilgrims. It means making space so people have the necessary freedom to respond to God, and it means a pastoral approach open to learning from the experiences of our brothers and sisters as they encounter Christ. That attentiveness must be given especially to the poor, Pope Francis tells us, for they oftentimes are sensitive to values and aspects of Christian morality that the powerful and educated overlook. And in this moment of great shame for the Church, the poorest among us are the victim-survivors of clerical sexual abuse. The bravery and courage they have shown have challenged a complacency that for many decades ignored the pain of a child, and was shamefully more preoccupied with institutional self-protection and image. We have done much to cleanse the Church of that disordered, conscience-shocking way of doing things, but we must do more to hear the cries of all those who have been injured, and take up anew the path of healing and justice.

 “Tend the flock of God in your midst, not by constraint but eagerly, not lording it over it but being an example to the flock.” These are the words of Peter, a fisherman who had to learn how to be a shepherd. Peter is a testimony to the steep learning curve facing every bishop throughout his life. A good shepherd must always be ready to adjust, Pope Francis tells us. At times he must be in front of the flock to lead, to point out and protect from danger. Other times he must be in the middle of the flock so that they get to know him and so that he gets to know them, calling them by name. Finally, there are moments, the Holy Father notes, in which the shepherd has to be behind the sheep, not only to make sure none strays, but also because the sheep are able to sniff out fresh waters that are unknown to the shepherd. Bravery and courage, compassion and affection, humility and an openness to being led—those are the qualities of a good shepherd.

Finally, there is a proper order in the life of the Church for mediating God’s grace and presence in our midst. We are blessed in these days with a homily by St. Augustine in the Office of Readings. He tells us that the primary relationship a bishop has with those he serves is based on the Baptism he shares with them.  “I am a Christian with you and must give a rigorous account of my life,” he writes. The late Cardinal Franjo Šeper, made the same point during the Second Vatican Council, telling bishops that ordination does not annihilate one’s Baptism. As Chrism is poured on their heads, new bishops are reminded of the first anointing they received in the Sacraments of Initiation, but also the second anointing on their hands on the day of their ordination as priests. Both anointings serve as a perpetual reminder that a bishop is a man in relationship with his people and his priests. He is ordained not to be a man of influence, a power broker, a celebrity who cultivates reputation and fame because of his talents. Such an approach would only separate him from his people and priests. He needs none of this, for he knows that by virtue of his Baptism he already belongs to a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people called out of darkness into God’s wonderful light (cf., I Peter 2:9).

There is a wisdom to be found in Word and Sacrament today, a wisdom we need to beg for, because we cannot attain it on our own. That wisdom is needed now more than ever as we work to set things right, to order the life of the Church in a way that shuns sin and roots out corruption, that shatters the illusion that some are privileged and protected, deserving of special treatment and exempt from accountability.

Today, I ask all here to pray that we your leaders be granted this gift, particularly as we now face our failures, many of them of our own making and as we seek forgiveness from those who have been harmed. As a way of expressing that need, I am going to ask for a variation on how we usually invoke the help of the holy ones in the Litany of Saints. I ask for the congregation, including the priests and deacons, to remain standing, and for all the bishops to kneel. As the three to be ordained prostrate themselves, I will join them. We like Solomon come before the Lord as beggars, in need of wisdom, a gift only God can give. But, we also pray that the Lord will grant the Church a renewed and constant thirst for justice and healing, confident and filled with hope that these too are gifts God has always wanted to give his children.