Encuentro 2000 Homily

by
Roger Cardinal Mahony
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Los Angeles
Saturday, July 8, 2000


Scripture Readings:

First Reading (read in Korean): Ezekiel 2: 2-5

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 123

Second Reading (read in Navajo): 2 Cor. 12: 7-10

Gospel (proclaimed in Chinese): Mark 6: 1-6

My dear Friends:

We have come together over the past few days to recognize and to celebrate the "Many Faces in God's House." Encuentro 2000 marks the first national gathering to lift up the riches of the Church's racial, ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States.
As you are aware, Encuentro 2000 has its origins in the experience of ministry among Hispanic peoples, but over these past few days it has provided an opportunity for all Catholics in this country to encounter Christ in the Spirit. This event has gathered representatives from all parts of the family of faith—the African, African-American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Latin American, Caribbean, Hispanic, Native American, European, Middle Eastern, and other communities that form the Catholic Church in the United States. As I look out among you, I can see clearly that indeed there are "Many Faces in God's House."

Over the last several days you have had the opportunity to share some of your own stories and you have listened to the experience of others. You have shared struggles, hopes, and dreams for your Church, your communities, and your families. In a spirit of prayer, celebration and multi-cultural awareness, parish and Diocesan leaders have sought to identify ways to recognize and nurture the Church's diversity in order to fulfill its mission: to be and build the Body of Christ—member for member—as a sign of reconciliation in today's world, a light to nations, a reason for hope for all peoples. We have had an opportunity to share the rich and unique gifts shaped by our different backgrounds, seeking to understand our diverse experiences in the light of the Gospel so that together we can take action to bring about a world of deeper communion and justice, bringing all peoples to a deeper realization of the abundance of God's Love.

As we celebrate the diversity of cultures that comprise the Church in the United States we now come to the Table of Word and Sacrament which lies at the center of the faith that unites us. For it is here, gathered by the Word and strengthened and sustained by the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, that we become one Body, one Spirit in Christ. It is here that we express and receive our identity as the Body of Christ—a welcoming, evangelizing, missionary people. It is here that we take up the gift and the task of being and becoming a people whose lives are committed to reconciliation, peace, and unity. And it is here, at this Table, that we recognize that we can only be and become the people we are called to be through the grace of conversion, communion, and solidarity.

All this sounds like a tall order, a very challenging mandate. Indeed it is. Your willingness to immerse yourselves in the life of the Church, to respond wholeheartedly to the Jubilee message, "Open Wide the Doors to Christ," is a sign of great hope. Our challenge in Dioceses and parishes across the country is to open wide the doors of the Church and welcome the gifts and talents, the wisdom and experiences, the joys and sufferings of our people—all our sisters and brothers in Christ.

But we can only remain faithful to this call by a deeper and deeper opening to the presence and abiding power of the Holy Spirit, and by an ongoing commitment to the core conviction that God is faithful, even in the face of our limits and shortcomings: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9). And we must remain steadfast in that conviction especially when it seems that we are being shunned, refused, rendered voiceless in our culture, our families and even, at times, in the Church: "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and his own house."

Today's Scripture readings highlight three themes that are important for us to heed if we are to move forward in becoming more fully a people of conversion, communion, and solidarity, day by day seeking to "Open Wide the Doors to Christ":

• First, we must be willing to listen to the Lord's word spoken to us—not only through Scripture—but through our own lives and through the struggles and experiences of our sisters and brothers in the Church and in the wider world. We are not to listen only with the ear, but with the ear of the heart, to discern the movements and rhythm of God's own heart in the cries of anguish and in the thirst for justice among those who are poor and weak and wounded, the last, the littlest and the least. But to really hear these voices, voices to which we are committed to listen, we must be attentive to the many voices, to the different tongues throughout diverse cultures; to the Spirit speaking through persons of many different races, and through a wide range of cultures.
  
  
• Second, we must recognize our own brokenness and weaknesses that enable us to be open and compassionate to others. It is precisely in our own vulnerability and brokenness, at our weakest point, that the Spirit of God can enter our lives and sustains us, bringing us into fuller communion in One Love. This is not a communion built on power and prestige, but on the ground of our shared conviction that in the power of the Spirit we can do greater things together than we could ever imagine doing alone.
  
  
• Third, we must be willing to engage in prophetic utterance, to speak a liberating word, in a culture in which human life and human dignity can be so easily compromised. This we can only do if "our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading his mercy" (Ps 123:2), and if our hearts are washed in the Word of God so that our words spring from a pure heart, bringing life and light to all who hear them. Even if our words are refused in our own "native place," "house," and "kin."

In the celebration of the Eucharist we express how we hope to live the whole of our lives. Divisions and a refusal to share are signs that we have not recognized the Body of Lord under the appearances of bread broken, which is shared with all. Unwillingness to share in the rest of life as well as in the Eucharistic celebration today signals our inability to recognize God's presence in the consecrated bread and wine.

The Eucharist does not allow for discrimination among persons: divisions and separations based on race, class, sex, handicap, status, rank are to be overcome; we express our willingness to work toward overcoming divisions and separations, so that Christ may be all in all (Gal. 3: 27-28). The Eucharist is a Sacrament, above all, of unity, and "this unity becomes visible when Christians gather together" (Dies Domini #31).

It is at the Liturgy that we are nourished by Word and Sacrament to promote a world of communion and justice—the "right order of things." Gathered faithfully together, strengthened by the Eucharist and fueled and fired by the Word, it is our call to go forth to create a world in which all may grow, with the ear of the heart always turned to those who carry the greatest burden of suffering in our time.

Encuentro 2000 was never envisioned as an end in itself, but a beginning. It is to be understood as a privileged moment in the life of the Catholic Church in the United States, an opportunity to look honestly at where we are today and set a direction for the future. May I suggest that if we are to carry the spirit of Encuentro 2000 forward, we need to take to heart the prophetic, pastoral, and public dimensions of the Gospel.

The prophetic dimension of this challenge is at once simple and profound. We are to proclaim in word and in deed—in clear and unambiguous terms—the inherent dignity of every human person. This dignity does not depend on economic or immigration status, on race or ethnicity, on age or gender. Human dignity is not determined by what we do, or how well or clearly we think. Rather, it is integral to who we are as beings created in the image of God.

The pastoral dimension follows directly from this prophetic stand. Our pastoral activity and social ministry are directed by this unwavering affirmation of human dignity, and is guided by the principles of recognition, respect and relationality.

We must first recognize the presence of diverse peoples and cultures in our midst. There are, sadly, still too many instances where entire ethnic groups remain invisible.

Second, we must cultivate not just tolerance, but a genuine respect, for our sisters and brothers from other racial and ethnic communities. There is no better way of achieving this than creating opportunities for people to come together to share their deepest hopes and dreams, their struggles and pains.

Third, we must seek to build a relational culture in our parishes where recognition and respect are enfleshed in a deeper sense of community. This deeper sense of community must lead to a recognition of the common ground we share with one another—the hope for the fullness of human flourishing which is the Father's gift to us through the Son in the Spirit.

And finally, the public dimension challenges us to move beyond the boundaries of family and parish to a wider sense of community. It calls us to appreciate the call to solidarity that has been at the center of the social vision of Pope John Paul II. This public dimension challenges us to enable those who are newly arrived in this land to become more fully integrated into the social, political and economic life of our communities.

The recent forum held only a mile from here on June 10, 2000 drew over 20,000 people committed to working for a new amnesty for immigrant workers. Those who gathered for that historic event represented the new immigrants who have made significant contributions to the economy of our communities. There were janitors, hotel workers, and farmworkers who have contributed to the economic growth of this region. In return, there should be new opportunities for legal residency and citizenship.

The social ministry of the Church is not peripheral to our mission. In the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council called the Church to be "a sign and safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person." When human dignity is compromised, when human life is threatened, the Church not only has a role but a responsibility to intervene in the public arena and be an advocate for the poor and vulnerable.

We can only rise to speak this word of communion and justice if we accept and celebrate the truth that "when I am weak, then I am strong," leaning into God's fidelity in the face of pressures from our "native place," our "house" and "kin,' and moving forward with "our eyes fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy." In so doing, we will come to recognize the light of the Spirit streaming forth from the "Many Faces in God's House," knowing that we are not alone in responding to the call heard in the deepest heart of each one of us.

Gathered and sent by Word and Sacrament, we will be able to hear more clearly the many voices in God's House, in tongues enlivened to speak a word of mercy and forgiveness, of reconciliation and peace. This is the Spirit speaking. It is the Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ with us now in a new Pentecost—at Encuentro 2000—a moment for all the peoples to speak in their own tongue and live in the ways of their own noble customs and rich cultures! And to look forward in hope to a time yet to come in its fullness, when each and every person—in their own tongue—is heard to be speaking the same language of the One Love!





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Encuentro 2000
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3413