Archbishop Burke's Homily, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This is the homily given by His Excellency this past Sunday at the Cathedral Basilica at the Mass of Farewell and of Thanksgiving to God for Archbishop Burke's four and a half years as shepherd of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
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Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.

The dialogue of our Lord with the Canaanite woman and the miraculous healing of her daughter are striking signs of God's love of us, which truly knows no boundary. The Canaanite woman, who was not Jewish but Gentile, was, nevertheless, full of faith in God's love which alone could save her daughter. She recognized God's love incarnate in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord tested her faith by making reference to the privileged place of His own people, the Jewish nation, in the Father's plan for our salvation. He reminded her that He was sent, first, to save His own people, so that they, in turn, might bring His salvation to all the nations. The Canaanite woman, with her great faith, begged to taste some fruit of the salvation which she clearly understood would come to the Gentiles, to all the nations, through the Jewish nation (Gospel). Our Lord's immediate healing of her daughter confirmed her faith and gives all of us the assurance that the gift of faith in Jesus Christ is indeed, at one and the same time, the gift of eternal life for all, without boundary.

God's desire to save all nations, without boundary, was manifested in a particular way in the miraculous conversion and subsequent apostolic ministry of Saint Paul. In Saint Paul, we see the realization of God's plan to bring eternal life to all the nations through the Jewish nation. Saint Paul, a most devout Jew, in his zeal for the Jewish faith, was thoroughly dedicated to the persecution and even execution of the first Christians. The risen Christ appeared to Saint Paul, while he was on the road to Damascus to arrest Christians. Through the miraculous apparition, Saint Paul understood that Christ is the fulfillment of all that the Jewish people believed and practiced.

Our Lord gave Saint Paul the gift of faith and poured out the Holy Spirit upon him in the Sacrament of Baptism, so that Paul could be His chosen instrument for bringing the faith and sacraments to all the nations. Saint Paul, therefore, was most conscious of the vocation of his own nation to bring the Savior to all the world. The observance of the Year of Saint Paul, which we have just begun, gives us a grace-filled occasion to grow, through the intercession of Saint Paul, in our understanding of the mystery of faith, by which God the Father unceasingly seeks to save all the nations through the passion and death of His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saint Paul faced the difficult situation of the rejection of the vocation to show the Savior to the world, on the part of some of his people. But he never lost hope that God's mercy, manifested in the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, would also bring the Jewish people to the faith and to the eternal life which faith in Christ brings to all mankind. He declared:

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Reading II).

As a devout Jew, Saint Paul had come to understand the meaning of the Word of God, spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

...for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples (Reading I).

Saint Paul understood that God the Father, Who had chosen the Jewish people for a most special service in His work of salvation, was, thereby, desiring to receive into His holy temple all other peoples, "[t]he foreigners" who would receive His Word with faith and put His Word into practice, worshiping Him in His holy temple and doing what is right and just. During the Year of Saint Paul, conscious of the immeasurable and ceaseless love of God, drawing all men to Himself, may we be inspired to pray ever more fervently, as we have just prayed: "O God, let all the nations praise you!" (Responsorial Psalm).

Over the weeks since the announcement of my transfer from the office of Archbishop of St. Louis to the office of prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, my thoughts have been filled with deepest gratitude for the manifold ways in which God our Father, through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, pours out His Holy Spirit upon us in the Church, drawing all men to Himself in love. A major change in our lives leads us to a grateful reflection on the chapter of the story of our life pilgrimage, which we are completing. As I reflect upon the relatively brief time of my service as Archbishop of St. Louis, I cannot thank God enough for the great mystery of His love, which brought me to you, His beloved flock of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and has never ceased to increase my pastoral love of you. I have even come to thank God for the deep sorrow which leaving you means for me, for it, too, is a manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit Who binds a shepherd in love of the flock for the sake of the teaching of the Gospel and the bringing of the grace of the sacraments to all, both the members of the household of faith and those who have not yet received the gift of faith but look to the Church for the sign of God's mercy and love.

As I bid you farewell today, I invite you to be one with me in reflecting upon the many signs of God's love at work in the Church in our archdiocese. The reflection goes far beyond what we can express in the few minutes we have, but there is a special grace for such reflection in today's farewell, to which we must respond. Consider, for example, the longstanding and deep roots of the Catholic faith in the archdiocese, and how they continue to bear fruit in the lives of devout Catholic families. Consider the dedication to Catholic education, to sacred worship, and to the works of charity, which are all fruits of the Catholic faith, handed down, with integrity, from the time of the apostles and from the time of the first evangelization of this chosen portion of God's vineyard. Consider the gift of our priests, both priests of the archdiocese and members of religious orders and communities, true shepherds of the flock, who are totally loyal to Christ, the Good Shepherd, represented in their bishop, and are thus united, with the bishop and each other, in the one priestly ministry of our Lord. Consider the flowering of many new vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life, and the wonderful work of preparing the future shepherds of the flock at our own archdiocesan seminary, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

Consider the study of the Catholic faith and the teaching of the faith in the homes, parish schools of religion, Catholic schools, and the Paul VI Pontifical Catechetical and Pastoral Institute, and through the activities of many associations of the faithful and other Catholic institutions. Consider the incomparable beauty of this Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, which symbolizes so stunningly the Catholic faith, lived, historically and presently, by the faithful of the archdiocese. Consider the ministration of the sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance, and, above all, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and the continuous adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, which take place daily in the many churches and chapels throughout the ten counties of our archdiocese. Consider the most beautiful fruit of the teaching of the faith and the worship of God, which is the daily conversion to Christ in seeking to live a holy life, a life poured out, with Christ, in pure and selfless love of God and our neighbor, especially our neighbor who is in most need. Consider the Christian stewardship practiced by so many in the archdiocese, on behalf of the whole Body of Christ, through parish support, the Annual Catholic Appeal, and many other charitable, educational, and missionary works.

In bidding you farewell, my thoughts, full of gratitude for all that God has been accomplishing in our midst, turn also to what remains to be done in carrying out more effectively the new evangelization. Today, we are called to teach, celebrate and live our Catholic faith with new enthusiasm and new energy in a society which is enslaved by materialism and secularism, and by the destructive individualism which is their fruit. We know the challenges in living the Catholic faith, which the faithful of the Archdiocese have historically faced, for example, the severe hardships to be overcome in carrying out the first evangelization of our area, the intimidation caused by a virulent anti-Catholicism, especially in the 19th Century, and the struggle to overcome the evil of the socially-acceptable prejudice toward and hatred of neighbor because of nationality or race.

We know the challenges in living the Catholic faith, which the faithful of the Archdiocese must meet today. We experience, for example, the daily temptation to compromise our witness to the truths of the faith or to remain silent before the agenda of a totally secularized society, an agenda which is constantly propagated by the communications media and which worships “politically-correct” speech and action over the speaking and living of the truth in love. We are painfully conscious of the most grievous attacks on human life and on the cradle of human life in the sacramental union of man and woman in Holy Matrimony, which are carried out daily in our society. We face directly the call to be one people with our brothers and sisters who are immigrants to our nation, to overcome any lingering form of national or racial prejudice and hatred. Within the Church, we struggle daily with those who would remake the truths of the faith and its practice, in accord with their own agenda, rebelling against the teaching authority of the Church’s pastors and betraying the Church’s witness to Christ in the world.

Conscious of what we must yet do in the new evangelization of our culture and of the daunting challenges which we face, we do not give way to confusion or discouragement. Rather, we remain confident in the immeasurable and unceasing thirst of God for our souls and the souls of all men, without boundary. Before our failures and the challenges we continue to face, we turn to our Lord to instruct us in the truth and to fortify us with the grace of the sacraments. We turn to our Lord in His holy Church, with humility, seeking the salvation which He alone can give us, and with confidence, trusting that His only desire is to save us from sin, to save us for eternal happiness with Him.

When our hearts are beset with doubt and fear and worry, let us go the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Blessed Mother, especially under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the title of her wondrous visit to our continent in 1531. She lovingly draws us to herself, so that she may bring us to her divine Son, the only-begotten Son of God. She helps us, by her example and her intercession, to lift up our hearts, with her Immaculate Heart, to the glorious pierced heart of Our Lord Jesus, the heart which He took in her sinless womb, under her Immaculate Heart. Our Lord never fails to receive us into His heart, with unceasing love, giving us rest and strength. He overcomes in us all doubt and fear and worry, so that we can bring the Father's mercy and love to our world. The Heart of Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, is the unfailing source of divine love in our lives, the divine love which alone heals and nourishes our souls, the divine love which alone saves our world.

Recognizing in the Heart of Jesus the source of our every grace and blessing, we consecrated ourselves, our archdiocese, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on June 17th of last year, on the occasion of the dedication of the shrine to the Sacred Heart in this Cathedral Basilica. As we reflect, today, upon the blessings of the past and the challenges of the future, let us renew again the Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart. Let each of us pray to Our Lord, as we prayed in the Act of Consecration:

I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants ("Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart" by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque).

May God the Father, in His infinite mercy and love, make the fruit of my time as your shepherd to be the faithful union of our hearts with His heart, the Sacred Heart of His incarnate Son, so that we may always find our joy and peace in serving Him with all our heart.

Let us now, with the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, lift up our hearts to the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus. One in heart with the Heart of Jesus in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, may we know the mystery of salvation in our lives and be, for the world, without boundary, the faithful messengers of freedom and peace, of eternal salvation in Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received, have mercy on us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.
Saint Louis of France, pray for us.
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, pray for us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Source: Archdiocesan Web Site