Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L.
Bishop of Scranton
HOMILY
REDEDICATION OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH
Christ the King Parish, Archbald, PA
March 6, 2011
There’s an old Irish Blessing: “May the roof above us never fall in. And may the friends gathered below it never fall out.” Seems to me that while the Lord forgot about the first part of that blessing, he doubled up on the second part. It is a blessing to be among so many good friends today.
Nineteen months ago last evening, I left my mother’s house in Carbondale following dinner and the time-honored ritual in our house of watching Jeopardy, and headed back to the rectory in Eynon. I pulled into the parking lot and put my car in the garage. It wasn’t later than 8:20 p.m. in the evening. As I walked up the back steps of the rectory, my cell phone rang. The caller was from our security monitoring system. She indicated that there was a smoke detector malfunctioning at St. Thomas Church. I asked if the fire department had been called and she said “No, it’s just a malfunctioning smoke detector. No problem.” With that bit of assurance, I was just about ready to open the back door of the rectory and retire for the night. I’d deal with this common occurrence the next morning. And then my type A personality got the better of me and I proceeded to drive to St. Thomas Church to check things out. I opened the door to the sanctuary and discovered for the first time in my life that I had the opportunity to dial 911. And it works. … We can all remember that night, can’t we?
So, so much has happened to all of us in the last year and a half, hasn’t it? Some of you may know this, some may not. Nineteen months ago this very day – less than 24 hours after the ceiling of the Church collapsed – my world did as well. I received a telephone call from Cardinal Rigali informing me of Bishop Martino’s pending retirement and the fact that I was being appointed as the Cardinal’s delegate to oversee the work of the Diocese. I still look at the ceiling collapse as a metaphor for my life!
So much has happened to ALL of us who gather. Apart from our personal stories and moments of joy and grief, achievements and loss, we’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot about life and faith and God. I hope we’ve used this time well.
We learned how blessed we are as a Church community. Paintings and statues and pews and books were lost – but not one life crafted in the image and likeness of God was taken. Not one life was even injured. … We learned just how blessed we are.
I hope we also learned how very much we need one another. Like so many parishes around the Diocese of Scranton, you, the parishioners of St. Thomas Church and the parishioners of St. Mary of Czestochowa Church, wondered how you would ever be able to live and work together as one parish community. Unlike other parishes, however, you weren’t given time to ease into that reality. It happened on the second weekend of August, 2009. And you have lived and worshipped together all these months. And nothing terrible has happened because of it, has it? Quite the contrary, Christ the King Parish has been strengthened because of the richness of so many hands and hearts working together. And those of you who have opened your lives to one another are richer and wiser and far more blessed than you were months ago. Please don’t squander the last nineteen months. Don’t go back to what was before. There’s too much to lose.
There’s something else that we’ve all had the opportunity to learn since that fateful day in August of 2009. Consider this: In the last nineteen months, you have not been one bit less a parish without this building. Quite the contrary. You still managed to teach the faith to our children, to share your food with the hungry, to touch hearts filled with grief. You still managed to gather around the table of the Lord to be nourished by his Word and by the Eucharist. You still managed to be Church. Since the earliest days of the Church following the death and resurrection of Jesus, this is what we have been taught – WE are God’s temple. Not this building; not St. Mary’s; not any other edifice no matter how beautiful. WE are God’s temple; God’s house; God’s Church.
Listen to what our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II noted in the apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici: “The parish is not principally a structure, a territory or a building, but rather ‘the family of God, a fellowship afire with a unifying spirit,’ ‘a familial and welcoming home,’ the ‘community of the faithful.’” The Holy Father goes on in another address to say further that “the parish is a community properly suited for celebrating the Eucharist, the living source for its up building and the sacramental bond of its being in full communion with the whole Church.” Indeed, he notes that “it is necessary that we all rediscover the true meaning of the parish, that is, the place where the very ‘mystery’ of the Church is present and at work.”
Suddenly, when we hear those lofty words of our Holy Father, when we realize that at the heart of the memories rushing into our thoughts today is nothing less than the mystery of the Church and the power and presence of God, this celebration reminds us of much, much more than merely a building, no matter how noble it may be. This celebration reminds us of who we are as Catholic Christians.
Personally, I am thrilled to be a part of today’s celebration. Yet, the presence of the bishop here today is not merely to add an element of solemnity to a festive occasion. It points to a something much more profound. We’re a part of something much bigger than ourselves – a diocese – the world wide Church. We’re linked to the Bishop of Rome and ultimately linked to our Savior – Jesus Christ.
Through the mystery and power of Jesus in our midst, we are a part of the communion of saints, the saints of this world and the next. We are bound to every soul who has ever worshipped in this building for all of its 130-plus years of existence. We are bound to our mothers and fathers, to grandparents and great-grandparents, to every heart filled with hope that helped to build St. Mary’s Church and St. Thomas’ Church, and we’re bound to every heart committed to building the parish community of Christ the King. We are bound together because of the Eucharist that we celebrate on this altar and because of the words of faith that we proclaim in its presence: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”
But there is still one final lesson that’s ours to learn from the past nineteen months. Just as there might be a few things that still need to be done to complete this project, our gathering today reminds us that we ourselves are unfinished temples of the Holy Spirit. As a local parish and as part of the universal Church, we indeed have a great history. Over the centuries the Church has been responsible for more good and decency and help than will ever be realized. The struggles that have been faced by the Church in recent years should not blind us to the enormous good that the people of God have done throughout the ages and still do.
And right here in Archbald AND Eynon, look at what has happened through the presence of Catholic communities in the past 150-plus years. You have shared faith. You have healed bodies and spirits, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, consoled, buried and converted hearts to the Lord. You have done Christ’s work. What a blessing you have been to Church.
But I noted a moment ago that we are UNFINISHED temples of the Holy Spirit. Just as this church building has been restored and refurbished many times over during the past 130-plus years, so has the Church. We too are broken. We constantly have need for renewal and conversion in our lives.
Today’s gospel from Saint Matthew – not a specially chosen reading but the gospel for the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time which happens to be today – speaks powerfully to what we celebrate today. Listen again to the words of the gospel writer: “Anyone who hears my words but does not put them into practice is like the foolish man who built his house on sandy soil. When the winds blew, the house collapsed.” But the wise man who hears my words and puts them into practice builds a house that endures.
I suppose some might ask: did this house of God collapse because we didn’t put God’s words into practice? No. God didn’t bring the ceiling down to punish us. The engineers told us that it collapsed because the trusses aged and dried out and splintered. But God does call each of us to learn from the events of life – even from this event. And in this event and this moment, God reminds us yet again to be open to renewal and conversion in our lives – to build our lives on the foundation of his Word.
As unfinished temples of the Holy Spirit, every one of us is reminded today that we are still called to do Christ’s work. The rededication of this church building recalls the struggles, pain and sacrifice of those who brought the faith to this valley many years ago. It also recalls the struggles, pain and sacrifice of those of you who have not only labored to rebuild a ceiling but who work to build the new community of Christ the King Parish that comes together for the first time in this sacred space.
While still housed within a familiar shell and located in a familiar part of town, in so many respects this is a new worship space for Christ the King Parish. I’d ask you to focus your attention on two images that were never here before – the two images on either side of the sanctuary. One is the image of the great Saint Thomas Aquinas. The other image is of our Mother, Mary under the title of Our Lady of Czestochowa. Patrons of two parishes that have come together to create a new community that worships here today for the first time – Christ the King Parish – a parish dedicated to the Lord himself, who looks down upon us from his throne – the cross.
We’ve all learned a lot during the last nineteen months. We’ve learned how blessed we are as a parish community and just how much we need one another. We’ve learned that for all of our appreciation of our houses of worship, WE are the Church – and like this building, we need to renew ourselves every day to become worthy vessels of the God who dwells within our hearts.
Under the watchful eyes of Our Lady of Czestochowa and Saint Thomas Aquinas, we gather now in prayer to profess faith in Jesus Christ our King and to celebrate the Eucharist. May our prayer today around the table of the Lord be one of gratitude and hope: gratitude for all that has been and hope for all that will be.
