I stand in a long line of 'unworthy servants'

By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily during a Mass where he marked the 25th anniversary of his ordination as a bishop. The Mass was celebrated Sept. 3, 2022, at St. Mary Cathedral, Miami.

Well, as you know, today I celebrate 25 years since I was ordained auxiliary bishop of Miami by Archbishop Favalora. September 3rd also has special significance to my family: It was on that day in 1947 that my parents were married. Had they still been alive my ordination as a bishop would have fallen on their 50th wedding anniversary. I can only thank God for them – and for the Catholic faith they handed on to me.

September 3rd is also the feast day of a holy pope and doctor of the Church: St. Gregory the Great (540-604 AD). Born in Rome, Gregory lived in times no less challenging than our own, yet he proved to be a true shepherd by carrying out his office, helping the poor, spreading, and strengthening the faith. His example and witness inspire bishops, even with today’s challenges, to approach the great responsibilities placed on us with a certain equanimity.

Pope Saint John Paul II wrote in Pastores Gregis: “Spiritual realism enables us to see that the bishop is called to live out his vocation to holiness in a context of difficulties within and without, amid his own weaknesses and those of others, in daily contingencies and personal and institutional problems. This is a constant feature of the life of pastors, as Saint Gregory the Great acknowledged when he admitted with regret: 'After having laid upon my heart the burden of the pastoral office, my spirit has become incapable of frequent recollection, because it remains divided among many things. I am obliged to judge the cases of Churches and monasteries; often I am called to involve myself in the lives and actions of individuals ... And so, with my mind pulled and torn, forced to think of so many things, when can it recollect itself and concentrate totally on preaching, without withdrawing from the ministry of proclaiming the word? ... The life of the watchman must always be on high and on guard’.”(#23)

I think every bishop – and indeed every pastor of souls – can easily identify with Pope Gregory and how the demands of his office weighed heavily upon him. And we all fear the fate of the tower builder in Jesus’ parable that we heard in today’s Gospel: “…and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’”

In commenting on today’s Gospel passage and its hard sayings on the cost of discipleship, the same Gregory the Great said: “In this world let us love everyone even though he be our enemy; but let us hate him who opposes us on our way to God, though he be our relative (...). We should, then, love our neighbor; we should have charity towards all – towards relatives and towards strangers – but without separating ourselves from the love of God out of love for them.”

To hear the same Jesus who tells us to love our enemies tell us that we must hate our parents and families can be a bit jarring to some unfamiliar with Semitic idioms. But to be a disciple of Jesus means that he is to be preferred before all others. To answer Jesus’ call, “Follow me,” is both a gift and a demanding task only possible through conversion of our minds and hearts, a conversion that allows us to embrace the cross and to see the world as Jesus sees it.

If we are to follow Jesus, it must be on his terms – and not on ours. To walk in the company of Jesus means the giving up of self-interest and competing loyalties. As Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

God does not call necessarily the wisest, or the strongest or the most qualified. He often chooses those held to be weak in the eyes of this world so as to astound the strong. But he demands a wholehearted – and not merely a half-hearted – response. Religious leadership is about leading others to Christ. It cannot be reduced to “smiles and styles.” The authority of a pastor is not about leading others to himself but to the Lord. He is not to point to himself but to point always to Christ.

They say that it can be “lonely at the top” – people in leadership often are the target of hostility and unrealistic judgments – and the life of a bishop, in spite of busy schedules and activities, can sometimes seem lonely. Yet, like Pope St. Gregory the Great and others who have served as successors of the Apostles, a bishop is never alone as he seeks to respond to his vocation to be a “servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the hope of the world.” Our friendship with the Lord, nurtured in prayer, must always sustain us, and strengthen us as do the prayers of our faithful and our priests. And every day, the priests and people of this local Church pray at every Mass “for Francis, our Pope, and Thomas, our bishop.”

There’s the story about a bishop – let’s say his name is John (the fact that there are two bishops here named John is only a coincidence) but anyway this bishop one day called in one of his priests for correction because of a bit of liturgical innovation.

It seems that the good priest instead of simply praying in the Mass “for Francis, our pope, and for John, our bishop, he was taking some liberties with the formula by saying “for Francis, our Pope Benedict and for John, your unworthy servant.”

“Father,” the bishop said, “You got to stop doing this.” The priest said, “What’s the problem, you say it.” The problem is, the bishop replied, “when you say it you mean it.”

But let me tell you, I don’t forget that I am indeed an “unworthy servant” – and when I do, a letter will usually arrive at my office from someone or another who is upset with me for something I wrote in the paper or with some decision I made, and they will tell me in so many words how unworthy a servant I really am.

The only consolation for me – and for anyone of us – bishop or priests – who carry this great treasure of our priesthood in vessels of clay is to remember that each one of us – reaching back to Peter and the apostles – stands in a long line of “unworthy servants.” Hopefully we will always remain conscious that we are “unworthy servants” because in this way we can also learn how to be “humble servants.”

To celebrate 25 years of service as a bishop is humbling but it is certainly an opportunity – one that should not be passed up – to thank God who called me in spite of my unworthiness and to thank all of you, the Catholic people of first the Archdiocese of Miami and then for seven years the Diocese of Orlando before I returned as your archbishop, for your continued support of my ministry, for all that you do with me in promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and especially for your prayers. Actually, I was going to pass on this opportunity but Sister Elizabeth Worley, my chancellor for administration, insisted that I would not. And so here we are.

We all can and do count on the extraordinary graces of the Lord Jesus who remains ever close to us. And as I reflect on my 25 years as a bishop – and now 46 years as a priest – I become ever more keenly conscious of the fact of how your prayers and your collaboration have made it possible for the Lord to work through me – often times in spite of myself – to teach, lead and sanctify that portion of the Lord’s flock entrusted to me. And so today I thank God but also, I thank all of God’s people, priests, deacons, religious, and all members of Christ’s faithful who have for 25 years prayed for and supported me and my episcopal ministry.

My episcopal motto is Omnia Omnibus – All things to all people. Here, in multicultural and multilingual South Florida, we must imitate this apostolic zeal of St. Paul: “To the weak, I became weak so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the Gospel so that I may share in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9: 22-23)

To celebrate 25 years is also a time for some introspection, for a frank and somewhat painful examination of conscience and to ask God’s forgiveness for my sins and my failures as a Christian and as a bishop. May the Lord sustain me – with the help of your prayers – that I might always give myself wholeheartedly – and never half-heartedly – to his service.

As the protagonist of Bernanos’ famous novel, “The Diary of a Country Priest,” says: It is all grace.