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From Archbishop Donoghue
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Vespers Honoring the Investiture of George
Aulbach as Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory |
[See Georgia Bulletin account] Dear Friends in Christ, Tonight, in the presence of his friends and family, the local Church has gathered, in order to honor one of her most beloved local sons, the distinguished Knight-designate of the Order of St. Gregory, George Aulbach - a man truly worthy of the honor now bestowed. Many of you have been George’s friends for years - others, like myself, have known him a shorter time. But time plays no role in learning about the character of this gentleman - it takes only a matter of minutes to realize his virtue, his kindness, and his willingness to be involved, to work, to help - so long as the project is worthy, and in line with the authorities that George has accepted in his life - the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that same Lord’s Holy Church on earth. After so many years of honoring the local Church with his dedication and work, I am the fortunate archbishop who has been able to seek, from the Holy Father Pope John Paul II, permission to honor George on behalf of the Universal Church. That permission being granted, we can know now a double joy - the joy of seeing a debt of recognition paid, and the joy of knowing that once again, God has put in our midst a living example of what He wishes us to be. What greater gift can we give our children, and all the generations yet to come, than the living example of good men and women, who excel in virtue, while retaining their modesty and humility before God. Such an exemplar is George Aulbach, and we are all elevated, because we are his friends, in this degree of Knighthood we are about to confer. Dear friends, more than books of wisdom, more than tracts on the law, and more than all the written meditations and homilies and sermons and addresses we can imagine, it is such as this, a life well-lived in the Lord and His ways, that is to be most valued, as an authentic treasury of the deposit of our Catholic Faith. George is not a saint - for no one who lives can rightly be called a saint. But he is definitely one of those people mentioned by St. Paul, when he writes: “So you must be strong in grace… a good soldier of Christ Jesus… the things which you have heard … you must hand on to trustworthy men who will be able to teach others.” Except for the Sacraments and for the Word of God in Sacred Scripture, nothing is so important to the Church, to the Faith, as this continuity of which St. Paul speaks - the ceaseless transmission, as the years, the decades, the centuries and now the millennia flow by, of the living testimony of those who believe - in what they say and in what they do, by word and by gesture. For it is not theory that moves us so much as the experience of what that theory can accomplish in practice. Faith is not simply the confession of belief - it is belief in action. And one does not follow behind the other or leave the other behind - the two walk the pilgrimage of the Christian life hand in hand. This is one of the great differences between the fullness of the Catholic Faith and all other professions of Christianity - and that difference must be seen, and seen clearly in the lives of good Catholics, for the continuity to flow, for the passage of faith to remain uninterrupted and relentless, so that all may see, and be moved, and come to know the salvation and the peace which is found in Jesus Christ. “The things which you have heard… you must hand on…” George is not the only one to have heard these words, and to have built his life upon their fulfillment - but he is the one we know, the one we respect, the one we love, and the one whose honoring now gives us so much joy. Dear friends, may God continue to bless His Holy Church on earth with such men, for in them, and in the heroic women that He also sends us, the power is found, to hand on, to our families and to our society, all that is meant by the love and the salvation of Jesus Christ, and the hope of glory. Amen + |