HOMILY
Rite of Election – February 22, 2026
Due to the uncertainty of weather conditions related to the anticipated winter storm making its way along the northeast coast of the United States, our much-anticipated Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, celebrated on the First Sunday of Lent every year in Saint Peter’s Cathedral, has been canceled. I’ve asked our Pastors to celebrate this cherished ritual within your parishes this weekend or next. While disappointed, we all have much for which to be grateful as we pray for well over three hundred catechumens and candidates from parishes throughout our eleven counties who have answered the Lord’s call to discipleship.
One evening a few weeks ago, I heard from a friend whom I had gotten to know when I served as pastor of her parish. She told me that her husband, whom I also knew well and who had been in failing health for some time, had been placed in hospice care. While that would be a difficult step for any family to face, my friend was excited to tell me that her husband had been baptized, confirmed and received the Holy Eucharist for the first time that very evening.
Having been born into a family that wasn’t particularly religious, this wonderful gentleman, who has been married to a devout Catholic woman for fifty-two years, never pursued a particular religious affiliation. That being said, he involved himself in his wife’s parish, helping at fund raisers, serving the poor, and talking about life and faith with most every pastor, including me. In fact, because of the obvious generosity of his heart and the goodness of his spirit, I never knew he wasn’t baptized until his wife told me, months into my tenure as pastor.
Who knows why it took so many years for this dear man to be baptized and received into our Church? I’m sure there was an ebb and flow to his journey. Perhaps it was the prodding and prayers of a faithful wife. Regardless, his story is a powerful reminder to me and hopefully to all of you of how God works, isn’t it? Sometimes God’s presence and his call to us are clear, unmistakable and deeply consoling. Sometimes God’s presence and call come into our lives in unexpected ways, over long periods of time and struggle. And sometimes, as the great Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin offered in a familiar prayer, we simply need to “trust in in the slow work of God.”
My friends, God speaks to us in so many ways, doesn’t he? Every one of the stories that have brought us to this day are unique. Yet, everyone of them assures us of one blessed reality: God is present in your lives! And God is speaking to the deepest recesses of our spirits, reminding us that yes, we are all given the opportunity to enter his life and love.
God is ever calling us to journey with him into the unknown – to forge with him a deeper and more intimate relationship of trust and love – and, in turn, to proclaim that relationship through the love and service of the lives that he gives to our care.
My sisters and brothers, and especially you, our catechumens and candidates, don’t discount for an instant the power of this moment in your lives. Jesus is speaking to you today, inviting you to a relationship with him – calling you by name to follow him. He is inviting you to walk a path that leads to a life of meaning, purpose and peace. He is saying, through his invitation, that your life – with all its struggles and joys, with all its blessings and challenges – has a unique place and role to play within his plan.
It’s possible that you see logic in the events along your journey that have brought you to this moment in your lives. But it’s just as possible that you can’t quite understand how or why God called you to participate in his life. Yet, amid such thoughts and questions, we hear the words of Jesus: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”
The scriptures for the First Sunday of Lent, beginning with the first reading from the Book of Genesis, are filled with reminders of how God has worked in creation, always engaging a people, using them to touch others, calling them to himself, working through the events of their lives, never giving up on his children – ever faithful, ever present.
And in this moment, my friends, you are called by God. Your name will be spoken. Your name will be heard. And your name will be written in the Book of the Elect. My dear catechumens and candidates, God places his hand on your shoulders today and chooses you to participate in his Kingdom. Through the touch of your godparents and through the affirmation of the Church, God calls you forth to walk with him in faith. … The initiative is God’s. The response is yours.
In the Gospel passage from Saint Matthew, we hear of Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the desert. Implicit within it is the story of Jesus’ own life determining choices. Jesus confronts the temptations posed – says “Yes” to the call of his Father in Heaven – and immediately goes forth to proclaim the Kingdom of God.
The journey that you begin will have its challenges. Jesus faced them and so will you. Yet, one thing is certain. The journey will lead you to discover meaning, hope and life if you trust in God’s plan for you – if you serve generously – and if you make the pattern of Jesus’ life your own.
My sisters and brothers who desire baptism – who seek full communion – we, the Church, pray with and for you and, above all, thank God for your presence among us. … Your “yes” to the Lord’s call reminds us that we are all responsible to lead lives rooted in the life and mission of Jesus. … Your presence among us is also a powerful reminder of just how much we need each other. Yes, God is calling you, just as he called me. And he is calling us to walk together within the Church – the community of believers – his body on earth.
May each of us give thanks to God for the gift of Jesus and his saving grace. … May you, our candidates for full communion, open your hearts to the Holy Spirit and to the power of Jesus who will fill your life through the Eucharist. … And may you, our catechumens, boldly proclaim your faith in Jesus as you inscribe your names in the Book of the Elect and take you place with all your sisters and brothers – young and old – rich and poor – saints and sinners … who have been called by God and chosen as his own this day.