HOMILY
SEPTEMBER
12, 1984
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in
Christ,
Let
us
give thanks to the Lord our God!
These
words we take from the
very heart of the Eucharistic liturgy. Eucharist
means thanksgiving. Today, as we meet around this altar, our first desire is to give thanks
- to give
thanks with the Archdiocese of Saint John's and with the whole Church
throughout Newfoundland, as it celebrates the two hundredth anniversary
of its
establishment on the island.
In this
way we wish to express what is the most characteristic element of the Eucharistic liturgy.
Our
sacrifice and our prayer in union with the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
-
in the sacramental identification with him - is above all
a
great act
of thanksgiving by the Church.
This
thanksgiving has shaped the spiritual life
of those
who have been the
disciples and confessors of the Redeemer in Canada
from the very foundations,
from the very roots.
The
liturgy that we
are celebrating is meant in a special way to express the
fact that the sons and daughters of Newfoundland,
Labrador and all of this
land, rooted
as they are in the mystery of Christ, cry aloud to God with full
hearts:
"Let us give thanks to the Lord our God".
We
give
thanks for all
the richness of creation.
In
particular
for the richness that has been shared in by the succeeding generations
in
Canada. Both by the generations that lived here in the past,
according
to the principles of their original culture, and also
by
the generations that have come here from beyond the sea, gradually building
up
the structures of a new civilization and Canadian culture. We give
thanks to the Lord for the opportunities that countless families have found
here
over the years, and for the freedom and hope that they have enjoyed.
And
so we
cry aloud with the Psalmist:
"How
good is the Lord to all,
compassionate
to all his creatures.
All
your
creatures shall thank you, 0 Lord,
and
your
friends shall repeat their blessing.
They
shall
speak of the glory of your reign
and
declare
your might, 0 God" (Ps 145 (144):9-11).
Our
thanksgiving rises from created things to God himself.
We
thank God for his existence: for the fact that he is
God, for his Godhead,
for his omnipotence and
holiness, for his
truth and love, for his eternal
plan for the salvation of man and the world.
We
thank
the Father for the Son and the Holy Spirit.
We thank the Son for
the
Father. We thank the Holy Spirit because through the love of the Father
and the
Son he is the uncreated Gift: the source of all the gifts of
created grace.
The
Apostle Paul writes: "This is what I pray, kneeling before the Father,
from whom every family whether spiritual or natural, takes its name:
Out
of his infinite glory may he give you the power through his Spirit
for
your hidden self to grow strong" (Ep 3:14-16).
Man
looks
into his own heart, into "the hidden self", and he offers up thanksgiving
to the very mystery of the Godhead. For he, man, has been created
"in
the
image and likeness of God" (cf. Gn 1:26),
and he
is now called
for
this reason to give particular thanksgiving. We give thanks to God for
the fact
that he is God in whom is found the eternal Model of our human
essence. We thank him for the Godhead, for the inscrutable mystery of
the
Trinity, for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
We
give thanks for everything that is the work and fruit of grace, whereby
human
hearts share in the intimate life
of God
himself.
For
this
is how Paul continues to write: "...so
that
Christ may live
in
your hearts through faith, and then,
planted in love and built on love, you
will
with all
the
saints have strength to grasp the breadth and length, the
height
and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond
all
knowledge, you are filled with all the fullness of God" (Ep 3:17-19).
We
give
thanks to God for the fact that he is God: for this absolute fullness
that he is.
And
we
also give thanks for this dimension of our humanity, which is our
sharing in
God's nature, in the intimate life
of God.
We
give
thanks for grace and holiness. In a particular way for the grace
and
holiness that in the course of the centuries has been shared in and
continues to be shared in by the sons and
daughters of this land:
"Bless
the God of all
things,
the
doer
of great deeds everywhere,
who
has
exalted our days from the womb
and
acted
toward us according in his
mercy" (Sir
50:22).
Indeed, we give thanks for the fact
that he, God, allows us, human beings,
to share in the messianic mission
of Jesus Christ, his eternal Son who
became man. We thank him for
the fact that he has made us the People of
God and has sealed our
mission on earth with the priestly, prophetic and royal seal
through our
sharing in the mission of Christ himself.
Christ
says to us in today's Gospel: "You are the salt of the earth. But
if salt becomes tasteless,
what can make it salty again? ...
You
are the light of the world. A
city built on
a hilltop cannot be hidden. No one
lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lampstand where
it shines for everyone in
the house" (Mt
5:13-15).
These
are
eloquent words, demanding words. And in the light of these words
we
give thanks for our Christian vocation.
We
wish to understand this
vocation in all its
different forms,
and to penetrate it with the
light of faith
and of our life-blood. We want to fulfil [sp] it. We truly want to fulfil it!
How
else can we express our thanks for the gift of our vocation in Jesus
Christ?
We
offer a
very special act of thanksgiving at this time for our Christian
families.
In union with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, we thank the
Father
"from whom every family takes its name". We thank him: - for all
those
many families throughout Canada whose lives reflect "the beauty and
grandeur of the vocation to love and the service of life" (Fami1iaris
Consortio,
1).
-
For
the deep love that Christian spouses communicate to
each other in
the communion of married life,
as they
keep alive in the world an altogether
special image of God's love.
-
For
the lives
of mutual fidelity lived
by countless couples through the
power of sacramental grace.
-
For
all those couples who
generously
endeavour to follow God's plan for human
love as expressed in the Church's teaching in Humanae Vitae
and Familiaris
Consortio, and whose
marriage is always open to new life;
and for all those who
help educate
couples in Naural [sp] Family Planning.
-
For
the great and unique service given by parents in providing new members for the Mystical Body of Christ.
-
For
the day-in and day-out efforts made by fathers and mothers in educating their children to Christian maturity.
-
For
the families who amidst pain, sorrow and economic distress live lives
of Christian
hope.
-
For
the commitment of families, in accordance with the
teaching of the
Second Vatican Council, to share actively in the mission of the
Church, as a believing and
evangelizing community and as a
community in dialogue with God and in the service of man.
-
For
the efforts made by Christian families to help young
people understand
the dignity of marriage and to prepare themselves adequately
for this vocation.
-
For
the renewed commitment of the Church to uphold and
explain the sanctity
and unity of the family,
and for the generous love with which so many priests and
religious expend their energies for the building up of family life.
-
For
the efforts of families who have experienced problems
and difficulties,
but who have persevered, being convinced that God's everlasting
and unbreakable
love is expressed in the indissoluble covenant of their own sacramental marriage.
-
For
the special witness given to Christ's teaching
on the indissolubility
of marriage by all spouses who suffer the
pain of separation, abandonment or rejection.
-
For
the transmission of the Gospel message in Christian homes, and for the evangelization carried out by
Christian
families in their neighbourhoods
and
places of work.
-
For
those many families that pray together and
find strength in worshipping
God.
-
For
the families that embrace the Cross, and in
Christian joy live their
share in the Paschal Mystery of the Lord
Jesus.
-
Yes, we give thanks and praise to God our Father for all the Christian
families - and they are a mighty legion – who listen to those life-giving words of Jesus
Christ his Son: "Your 1ight must
shine in
the sight of men, so that, seeing
your good
works, they may give
praise to your Father in
heaven" (Mt 5:16).
May
all the Christian families
of the world, and all of
us, fulfil [sp] our Christian
vocation, each one in accordance with the
gift we have received. Each
one of
us, by the testimony of our good works. Each one of us caught up by
the call to give glory to our Father who is in heaven, to give
thanks to
the Lord our God.
Thanksgiving
is the manifestation of God's glory in everyone. Man, whom
God
has placed in the midst of the visible world - man whom God has made a
sharer
in the mystery of creation and of the mystery of the Redemption
through grace - this man is called to glory. As he manifests - through
thanksgiving - the
glory of God that is in all
things,
man receives in himself the
pledge of the
future glory that will be revealed in him.
Beloved
brothers and sisters of
Newfoundland, Labrador and all
Canada: Let us give thanks to the
Lord our
God!
It
is
right to give him thanks and praise.
Amen.