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Dear Friends in Christ,

In the Gospel today, we hear our Lord reveal one of the deepest and most disturbing truths He came to teach. Deep, because it is wrapped up in mystery, the mystery of life and death - and disturbing, because it requires of each and every one of us, a radical change in our lives - a turning from the world, and all its attractions.

This teaching occurs when our Lord speaks these words:

I am telling you the truth. . . Whoever loves his own life will lose it; whoever hates his own life in this world will keep it for life eternal.

From death comes life, Jesus says, and illustrates it with the simple parable of the grain of wheat - the grain remains dormant in its husk, impervious, unyielding - but then, the grain falls to the ground, it is buried in the earth and shut off from the light. And then the miracle happens, life stirs within the seed, the husk cracks, the root breaks free, and the cycle of life is renewed. This grain which was without life now grows into a plant, and its life will be given, as food, so that many may live.

This is not only Jesus preaching a parable, it is also Jesus describing Himself, and showing us clearly how we are to become like Him. For we too must give our lives if we are to obtain life - we too must submit to the necessity of death if we are to truly find life and win glory. We too must come to greatness through service, through self-sacrifice, and sometimes, through death. We have the examples of the saints to prove this - and especially the martyrs, who like Christ, have given their "hour of suffering" so that the Father might be glorified.

And of course, we have the amazing example of St. Vincent de Paul. Like Mother Teresa in our own time, St. Vincent knew full well the meaning and the consequences of our Lord's words. We cannot say, that at some particular age, St. Vincent decided to give himself entirely to the service of the poor. It happened to him time and time again throughout his long life of 80 years. As a seminarian we read of his loving concern for his brethren - when he was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, we see him solicitous for his fellow slaves, but also for the conversion of those who had betrayed him into slavery - later on, as he came into his prime, and gained influence of his contemporaries, his strengths were turned towards every possible face that poverty could wear in the world of his time - the destitute and poor in general, but also, orphans, persons with disabling disease, fallen women, galley slaves -and his efforts were not confined to physical poverty and suffering - he also immersed himself in a movement to revitalize and reform the seminaries of his day, understanding that the spiritual poverty suffered by the people could only be alleviated if the Church could have many good priests - priests to follow in the unselfish way of our Lord Himself.

And if we focus this microscope of our admiration to an even more exacting power, then we understand that St. Vincent did not experience the taking of death, and the remaking of his life in phases, but experienced it every day. Every morning, upon rising, this man would cast himself like a dry and encased seed, upon the love of the Lord. And from that interaction of love, the wheat of his greatly productive life sprang up, to the point where its yield in charity was able to encompass then needs of thousands and thousands of men and women and children.

And the power of God in this humble and tireless man, did not cease with his death - for we are the living evidence of his ministry yet living, yet serving, yet making a huge difference in the lives of many who would suffer more, if we were not there to help them, to share their burdens, and to guide them in finding a way out of misery.

For one hundred years, the zeal, the spirit, the apostolate of St. Vincent de Paul has been a part of the life of Catholics in and around Atlanta. It started at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, our mother church - it was soon taken up at Sacred Heart, and then in regular succession, the field has flowered, until this present day, when the Archdiocese of Atlanta enjoys the work of over sixty individual conferences. Would St. Vincent be proud of what we have done? I don't know if proud is the word - he would certainly be appreciative, he would certainly say that God is glorified in the work of these conferences - but he would also probably want to know, what we had planned for this coming week ,with regard to helping the poor in our own backyards. He understood, as we must, that the work never stops, and that the love of Jesus Christ must flow forever.

With this Mass, we celebrate the one hundred years of conference work in North Georgia - and with this Mass, we honor the character and zeal of St. Vincent de Paul, who means so much to all of us. But with this Mass, we also ask God to teach us to be like St. Vincent, to cast down every day, the seed of our complacency, upon the fertile soil of our Lord's love, and to draw up from that encounter, ample nourishment, physical; and spiritual, that the needs of the poor might be met and resolved. To do this, we need grace. We cannot do it on our own. We must serve, we must follow, we must trust and hope.

Jesus asks us to follow Him, to put all our trust and our hope in God. We do this, believing that what God did for Jesus He will do for every man and woman. When God sends us out on the road, we are not without directions and guidance. We enjoy the wisdom of the scriptures, the treasury of our Church's teaching and tradition, and the example of her saints, like our beloved Vincent de Paul. When God gives us a task, He does not then abandon us to the instability, and limited strength of our own natures. Instead, if we say yes to Him, if we say yes to our Lord, if we say yes to that death which strips us of the husk of selfishness and raises us up with the life of charity, then God provides the nourishment we need - the limitless source of grace, in the Sacraments of the Church, and particularly, in the soul-nourishing food of the Eucharist. Our God is never silent before the needs of His people - we listen, and we hear Him speak, and His strength surges through us, and makes of our lives, water for the thirsty, food for the hungry, shelter and warmth for the homeless, and family for the abandoned.

The Father answered Jesus, and said, "I have glorified [my name] and will glorify it again." It was first glorified by the gift of Christ our Lord, the gift of His life, made for our sakes. Now, today, at this Mass, we ask, we pray, that God may glorify His name once more, in the gifts that we make - our lives for the love of Jesus Christ, and for the relief of all who suffer, and whom we are bound to serve.

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