By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the 60th anniversary Mass for the parish of St. Louis in Pinecrest. The Mass was celebrated Sept. 10, 2023.
Well, 60 years might not seem like a long time for a Church that is almost 2,000 years old; but here in South Florida, where almost everything seems to have been built the day before yesterday, 60 years is certainly something to celebrate! Here in the Archdiocese, which was founded 65 years ago, in 1958, many parishes are celebrating 60, 50, 40 years – a testimony to the tremendous growth of our region in the second half of the last century. Bishops in the north celebrate anniversaries of parishes that are much older: 100, 150 years or older. Here, I’m older than most of our parishes. In fact, one time I was at a celebration, and someone asked where is the relic? And the altar server pointed at me and said: There he is.
The Gospel reading today is particularly apropos for us — for it reminds us that as a parish we must be both a reconciled and a reconciling community; for as we sang in the Gospel acclamation: God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
The word, parish, is derived from the ancient Greek — pa-roi-ki-a —; the Spanish, parroquia, is much closer to the original Greek than its English equivalent. It meant a sojourn in a foreign land, or a community of sojourners. And so when the Hebrew Scriptures were first translated into Greek, pa-roi-ki-a was used to describe the Israelites as they sojourned through the desert on their way to the Promised Land.
As Catholic Christians, to say that we are parishioners of this or that parish is to identify us as members of a pilgrim people, a group of sojourners called forth by God. To say that we are parishioners is to acknowledge that we sojourn in the way that his Son, Jesus, opens before us. We Catholics are members of the new People of God, the New Israel, established by Christ on the foundation of the 12 apostles. We know that here on this earth we have no lasting dwelling place, for our citizenship is in heaven, our true Promised Land.
Our parishes, where the community of sojourners meet, are then like way stations, rest stops, along our pilgrim way. St. Louis, of course, is much more than just a simple way station or rest stop: It is truly an oasis. To tell the story of this parish is to tell the story of people who, under the leadership of some extraordinary pastors, created an equally extraordinary community of faith, hope, and love.
In our contemporary culture, we face some strong head winds. Ascendant secularism is eroding the faith of so many people. “Secularism,” I tell kids at my confirmations, “is a 50-cent word — but it describes what happens when a person or a society pretends that they can live their lives or organize their society as if God doesn’t matter. That’s “secularism” in a nutshell. And today, where do you hear outside of Church that God matters? And if God doesn’t matter, people made in his image and likeness won’t matter either. If God doesn’t matter, the unborn child won’t matter; the migrant won’t matter; the battered woman or trafficked child, the infirm or the lonely, aged person, won’t matter.
Parish life is not something merely incidental to us as we make our life’s journeys. Perhaps this might be the most enduring lesson to be learned as we put the pandemic in our rear-view mirrors. We are social beings — we need each other, we need community, and we need God. Parishes should be “schools” of prayer and communion, places where love of God and neighbor come together and thus parishes — as way stations along our sojourn — keep us from becoming “of the world” and they enable us, as we sojourn in the world, to be always “for the world.”
The history of this parish — like any history forged by fallen human beings — is full of lights and shadows. We should not be surprised that the Church which Christ founded to save sinners is — well — full of sinners. Yet, the Church is holy — and she is holy not because of us but because of the Spirit that is given to her.
Many have come and gone — among them were some saints, and to be sure many sinners — and today we lift up in prayer those pioneers — priests and people —who were here at the beginning and have gone home to the Lord.
So, as we celebrate this jubilee today, may we remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm, and look forward to the future with confidence.
