Homily of the Most Rev. Daniel E. Thomas at Evening Prayer Liturgy of the Hours, Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, Toledo, Oct. 21, 2014. Delivered on the eve of his installation as the eighth bishop of Toledo.
Reading: 1 John 3:1a, 2
“See what love the Father has bestowed on us, in letting us be called the children of God! Yet that is what we are.”
This evening, on the installation eve of the new bishop--that would be me--gathered as a diocesan family in Christ, together with family and friends from near and far, each of us is reminded by Saint John of a simple yet profound truth: we are children of God! Children of a Father who loves us, who nurtures us and desires us one day to be united with Him in heaven.
Saint John reassures us we are God’s children now! What we will later be has not yet come to light. The implication of course is, if we take the time to realize we are his children, if we believe it in our hearts, minds and souls, if we live it as faithful children of so loving a Father now, then, please God, we will one day be like him, for we shall see him as he is!
But how did we become his children? Was it something we did, something we accomplished, or something we merited? No! We became his children when we were baptized into his Son, Jesus Christ. We became adopted sons and daughters, baptized into the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So how we act does not win us his love. How we act is the response to his love. When we were confirmed, remember, we learned one of those gifts of the Holy Spirit “fear of the Lord.” Do you remember memorizing that? But that “holy fear” is not being afraid of being beaten or reprimanded by our father, but it's the fear of displeasing the Father, because we know how much he loves us, and how much we truly want to love him in return!
This evening, each of us is invited to recognize that simple profound truth: “I am a child of God the Father.” And if any of you, like me, has had the blessing of having a loving father, you know how that love can define your life. We need only think of the child, whose father is teaching him how to swim. The boy is petrified to jump into the water, but his father in the pool extends his arms and invites his son: go ahead, jump, don't be afraid, I'll catch you! We need think only of the young girl, whose father is taking her to College for the first time, who reassures her with a warm hug and a word of encouragement, reminds her who she is, where she came from, and that no matter what happens, he will be there. We need think only of the father who, even in physical disability, from his nursing bed, strengthens his children by example, comforts them in his suffering and inspires them with the strength that comes from sacrificial love.
This is just a glimplse into the Father, the heavenly Father who loves us! For this new bishop, who comes to stand in the person of the Father, and who comes to become the father of the family of faith of the Diocese of Toledo, this is a daunting task. And so I beg you, pray for me please, that I myself may live as a child of the Father, a holy bishop who loves you, nurtures you, and desires one day to be united with you in heaven. With all my heart, I pledge to love you with every fiber of my being, to hold you daily close in prayer, to teach, govern and sanctify as the Father would have me do in Jesus. Every good father loves his children unconditionally; so will I strive to love you. Every good father strives to love first by example and to protect his family from evil; so will I strive to love you. Every good father, even though his children stray, lets them know he is always there to welcome them home; so will I strive to love you.
If we take to heart, if we really believe we have a Father in heaven who loves us beyond our imagining, then such belief and conviction changes the way we see ourselves, others and the world. Believing in the Father’s love enables us to truly live out our Baptism, to reform in our own lives, to trust and to believe in Christ, His Gospel and the Church, and to become the radical disciples the Church and the world so desperately need. Living as authentic children of God can convert hearts and minds, transform a family, edify coworkers, rekindle the lukewarm and inspire schoolmates.
Being God’s children now has three consequences, writes one commentator on this passage from Saint John: “Christians do not belong to the world, which failed to receive Jesus. Christians will lead lives of holiness like Jesus. Christians are confident of an even greater salvation in the future” (JBC 991). Whatever our vocation, no matter our age, the discipleship we live will often be at odds with a world which would have the Church change to fit the world, a world which may reject us because we live Jesus. Whatever our vocation, we are called this evening to recommit ourselves to lives of holiness, to live in and for Christ each day. Whatever our vocation, we must never lose heart, but hope confidently in the glory of heaven promised to those who remain faithful.
As the new father of the family of faith, I promise our priests, deacons, seminarians, consecrated men and women and all the lay faithful, to see each of you first as a child of God, created in his image and likeness, redeemed by the Son, living temples of the Holy Spirit. I pray you will see me in the same way.
When I was growing up in our neighborhood there were a number of families who had children who all looked alike. Have you ever known a family like that? And whenever the children there every year went to school the teachers would say, "Oh, you must be so-and-so or so-and-so." That was because their DNA gave them a physical resemblance. But our spiritual lives are to give us a spiritual resemblance. As one family, children of the Father.
In an Audience just last month with all the new bishops from around the world who were named in the last year, our Holy Father, Pope Francis exhorted them: “Nothing is more important than introducing people to God.” He urged the bishops to begin with the young and the elderly, because, he said: “the first are our wings, and the second are our roots. Wings and roots without which we do not know who we are, much less where we are going.” To our dear young people of the diocese and to our dear older people in the diocese, your new bishop needs you to be his wings and his roots!
Pope Francis went on to invite the bishops to be sentinels to awaken their Churches. Listen to what he counseled: “Do not waste energy in conflict and disagreement, but rather use it to build and to love.” As your new bishop and the father of the family of faith in this diocese, I pledge to you I will use my energy “to build and to love”!
This evening, each of us is reminded by Saint John of a simple yet profound truth: we are children of God! Children of a Father who loves us, who nurtures us and who desires us one day to be united with Him in heaven. A Father who desires us to live in such a way that others might recognize that we are, not only in name, but in word and deed, His children in Jesus Christ.
“See what love the Father has bestowed on us, in letting us be called children of God!
And that is what we are!”
First Published October 22, 2014, 12:00 a.m.
