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From Archbishop Donoghue
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Closing of the Serra Conference
2000 |
Vigil Mass, 2nd Sunday of Lent, Cycle B [See Georgia Bulletin account] Dear Friends in Christ, We have all heard the account of our Lord’s Transfiguration many times, and I think that we all realize the connection between the characters involved – Christ, Moses, and Elijah – the Word of God, the law, and the prophets. And when we hear that our Lord chose only Peter, James and John, the senior of the men He had gathered around Him, to go along with Him up on the mountain, it is clear that a special meaning was meant to be learned by these events – that Christ as the beginning of a new covenant, one that did not reject the law and the prophets, but one that fulfilled all the prophecies, and brought all the laws to their fullest fruition. And upon it all, and surely the most impressive and in a true way terrifying event of that day, for Peter and James and John, upon this vision of the New Covenant, the voice o f God Himself was heard, to confer His blessing and His command: This is my Son, my beloved. Listen to Him. But for us, who are not heavenly begins, surely the most endearing reaction is that of Peter, the man – Peter is so moved, so dazzled by these events, that he really believes the end has come – or perhaps not the end, but at least the moment which they have all been waiting for – the moment when Christ would ascend His throne, as the Messiah, and as the new and final King of Israel. This is why Peter suggests that they set up tents, or booths as they are often called – they won’t be going anywhere else – nothing could be greater than this vision of the new Covenant – so now, the only task is to be comfortable, and wait for the rest of the world to draw near, and to be received into the kingdom of God, of Christ, on earth. How like us we find Peter, and how like Peter we find ourselves. We listen, we question, we discuss, we learn, we follow the Lord’s word, we make plans accordingly, we ask God’s blessing – we put into place the things that we are called to put in place, and then we wait in eager expectation for our projects to perfectly materialize, to be born with built-in success, and to require nothing more from us than our appreciative contemplation. Don’t get me wrong – I do not mean to suggest that what we do - and especially in reference to this excellent Serran Conference - that any of what we do is useless, or that it is empty and arises simply out of our vanity. This Archdiocese, all the good Catholic people who make it up, are deeply grateful to the Serrans for too many things to enumerate here – but if we were to make the effort, then in first place would be the Serrans’ ongoing work to keep vocation awareness constantly before the eyes and hearts of our people, and especially our young men and women. And we, as Serrans, in our turn are deeply grateful for the outstanding talent that has been gathered for this Conference, the wisdom and experience that has been freely shared, and gratefully received by our attending members. And finally, all together, we are grateful for the inspiration that comes from on High, from the Holy Spirit, and unites us in an enthusiasm for the Faith that is perhaps the most constant, and the most satisfying of all the emotions we might feel during a lifetime. But having recognized these contributions – having been dazzled as it were by the expert testimony of our speakers, do we not all perhaps feel the tendency to do just what St. Peter did? – to go home, to kick back, as they say, and to think long and hard about what we have heard, and to await comfortably, whatever should happen now, although we are not really certain what that might be? Well, the Lord had something completely different in mind for St. Peter than what the fisherman had in mind himself. For this event on Mt. Tabor was no final point – there were to be no tents, no booths of miraculous exposition, no waiting on things to happen, on people to come – there was to be only sacrifice, pain, hard work, travel and more travel, and for many of His friends, the friends of the Lord, there was to be the final glorious gift of their lives – their lives so that countless more lives would hear and come to believe in the saving message they themselves had heard first hand. Dear friends, for us it is the same – though we have succeeded in doing well what we came together for this week-end to do, there is no sitting back now, there is no resting – there is only time for coming down from the mountain, for setting out with Christ, with the Lord once more, in order to take His message wherever our feet are led. It is not a call to discussion that we have heard here – it is a call to holiness, to the putting of faith into action. Let us pray, with this Mass and in our daily devotions, that the Holy Spirit will now inspire us to do His holy work, as good Catholics, as good Serrans – and if the prospect for our responsibilities, or the weighty vision of the work yet to be done should cause us to hesitate, to doubt, to weaken, to stand still and sit down, then let us heartily recall the words of St. Paul, and say with him, as we get up and move forward: If God is for us then who can be against us. [God] did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for the sake of us all – will he not grant us all things besides? [For] in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. + |