Inaugural Week
Dedication Liturgy
Transcript of cardinal's homily
(http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/117886,CST-NWS-cardtranscript3.article)
October 31, 2006
The following is a transcription of the homily Cardinal Francis
George
gave during the 10:30 a.m. mass Sunday at Catholic Theological Union
in
Hyde Park, on the occasion of the dedication of a new building at
the
school:
"Dear friends in Christ, Catholic Theological Union brings something
that
is a great grace and that is in many ways unique, not only to this
local
church but to the church's ministry here and throughout the world,
because it
was begun with a missionary impetus and with a missionary
dimension. Not as
something extra, not as something added, not as a
course in missiology but as
an expression of the charism of the founding
bodies that were, for the most
part, international and who sought to
find a place and found a place that
would be faithful to the
universality of Jesus Christ.
"I think because of that, CTU has continued to reach out [all]
these
decades of its existence. It has been open to training others --
lay
ministers particularly in this local church and elsewhere. It's
been
very involved in dialogues here and elsewhere, ecumenical dialogues
and
interfaith dialogues, and dialogues with the culture itself.
"Theology is always a conversation, a dialogue between faith and
reason
within a particular culture in which the conversation takes place . .
.
There is, then, in that missionary impulse as a goal a unity,
a
wholeness that does not replace any diversity but sees the good
wherever
it is to be found and incorporates it into God's vision.
"Jeremiah the prophet foresees the return of the chosen people from
exile
. . . to their own land so that their unity could be restored. It
was
impossible to imagine a people existing in their own identity but
also living
in a land that had been given them as part of the covenant
and he rejoices in
that, the fulfilled promise. He makes it whole by
proclaiming it, he makes it
present.
"And St. Paul, in the second reading, speaking to the Ephesians,
can
celebrate the unity of all those who have been called to Christ
Jesus,
whether Greek or Jew or any other of the nations in the
Mediterranean
basin of his day, so that they could find in that unity --
which was
pure gift from Christ -- a unity that superceded the division that
often
had them at one another, both in the church and outside the church.
"To celebrate them as a dwelling place of God in the spirit -- that
unity,
that wholeness is always a gift. It is not an achievement. It's a
gift from
Christ that follows upon conversion to him that takes place
when we encounter
him on the way.
"In the 10th chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark, that was read in part
by
the deacon for this inaugural eucharistic celebration, we have the
story
of Bartimaeus. But it follows another story of a rich young man.
"A rich young man who was at ease in his time and place, a good man
who
had kept the commandments, but recognized that something more was
needed
for completeness, for wholeness, for integrity of self, and for
unity
with God. He was a moral man who kept the law and did what was
demanded
of him within the context of his religion.
"And yet, there was something more that depended not upon his own
actions,
but depended on a gift from Christ. And that depended upon his
being able to
surrender, to give everything up in order that he follow
Jesus. At that, he
drew back. For he was a well-situated young man with
a promising future, many
gifts, and also much wealth. There came a
certain point where that final
surrender was not possible and Jesus
himself was not able to break through
and bring him to conversion.
"In Bartimaeus, we have something very different. He is an obviously
very
incomplete man. He's not only blind, he's a beggar. And that
incompleteness
turns out to be the beginning of a gift -- he has nothing
to lose. And so he
comes up with a very simple request, when finally he
gets the attention of
the Lord. The crowd at first had told him to keep
silent. Jesus recognized
him and then he turned around and encouraged
him to tell the Lord what he
wanted. And he says, simply, 'That I might
see.'
"That's not a very impressive request. It is, of course, for a blind
man,
but the rich young man said, 'I'm good, I want to better.' That
seems
altogether more satisfactory as the beginning of a religious life,
a life of
discipleship. But it's not.
"The blind man, the beggar asked for help, 'So that I may see.' In
asking
for that help, he surrendered even the very cloak which was
probably his last
earthly possession, to leap up and to go to the Lord.
Free of himself, he
then, after his conversion in that encounter, after
he received the gift of
sight and then spiritual sight through his
faith, he joined Jesus on the way
to Jerusalem.
"He joined Jesus on the way to his own self-surrender, to his passion
and
death, to receive back his life from the Father after he'd
accomplished the
Father's will through the resurrection.
"There is in this gospel, in these stories, a double dynamic. There is
a
personal dynamic wherein we recognize that what I have not
surrendered
to the Lord, I will not have, certainly not for eternity, but
also not
truly have in this life. I'll always be worried ... I'd always
be
cautious, and those precautions would get in the way of true
surrender.
It isn't that the Lord doesn't want us to be prudent and careful
about
the good things of this life so that we might share them with others
and
take care of our families and our responsibilities, and use them
to
build marvelous facilities such as this.
"Nonetheless, in the end we have only what we surrender, we have only
what
we have given to the Lord. We have only the relationships that
are
established in that surrender.
"I went through a very serious illness, as you know because so many of
you
have prayed for me, and I want to take this occasion in gratitude to
God not
only for this new moment of grace for CTU, but also to thank all
of you who
prayed for me.
"I had the sense in the midst of pain that often isolates that I was
not
alone. Because there is that relationship of faith and love that is
far
more profound than we think of as we go through the demands of
ordinary
life, with all the distractions that are a part of our lives -- mine
as
well as yours -- we can forget that the church exists in this network
of
relationships, this communion, we call it . . . .
"That is there. That is there and we can always count on it, even when
we
forget about it. It is always there and it is a pure gift. And for
having
discovered that again, I am grateful to God, and for your having
been a part
of it, I am very grateful to you.
"But there is more than that experience of relationships. There [is]
also,
when faced with death, the question: What have I not yet
surrendered? What
have I not yet given up? Because if I haven't
surrendered it, I cannot
receive it as a gift. It is simply gone.
"And there we enter into a kind of cultural dynamic as well as a
personal.
We are in the United States of America and most of us are
United States
citizens. And that is something that is truly good. I
believe our country has
often been an instrument, I believe, of God's
providence, to help others live
more freely, to conquer tyranny, and
many wonderful things.
"But there is another side also to our reality that came home to
me
precisely as a member of a missionary congregation. For 12 years when
I
was the vicar general of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
who
have been part of CTU now for many years and I hope will continue
in
some fashion, I visited the world's poor in many, many countries
where
the Oblates are present in rather low-profile because they are
with
those who would otherwise be overlooked and neglected.
"And I was blessed with the ability to talk to poor people, with
people
whom they trusted and whose language they spoke. These are
missionaries
and the people they served that you won't find on FoxNews or
CNN, not
the kind of people who speak enough English to appear on our
television
and who are not particularly important.
"That experience transformed me, certainly, and I think that experience
is
made concrete at CTU in many ways.
"I found as I went around that no matter where I went, even in
Marxist
lands, people knew who I was as a Catholic priest. Sometimes
they
trusted that and sometimes they did not, and they knew who I was, and
I
could find my way -- sometimes clandestinely, sometimes openly
--some
very difficult circumstances in dictatorships of all sorts, in
countries
struggling to be free.
"This was in the '60s and '70s, long before 9/11, long before the
Iraqi
war. And people, everywhere that I went, although I found myself part
of
a global society as a Catholic priest, I found myself suspect as
an
American citizen. There aren't many places where I can say that,
there
aren't many places where I would want that to be said for me, and
I
wouldn't want to be quoted outside of this context.
"But you understand that -- at least certainly the students here do. And
I
think those of you who have been a part of the building up of this
great
institution here, this true blessing, come to understand it also:
"The world distrusts us not because we are rich and free. Many of us
are
not rich and some of us aren't especially free. They distrust us
because
we are deaf and blind, because too often we don't understand and make
no
effort to understand; because we know what is best.
"We have this cultural proclivity that says, 'We know what is best. And
if
we truly want to do something, whether in church or in society, no
one has
the right to tell us no.' That cultural proclivity, which
defines us in many
ways, has to be surrendered, or we will never be part
of God's kingdom.
"That conversion of an entire culture is far more difficult than
the
personal conversion that is our challenge each time we pick up
the
gospel. But we know it is necessary -- not only for us, but for
every
single culture and every single society, poor or rich, in the
world
today. ... There is always a need for something more, not only more,
but
for something radically different. And it won't come unless we ask
for
it as a gift. We cannot achieve it ourselves.
"I would pray that CTU continues its mission, as it has done so well.
But
also within that mission, to not only instruct those who would
minister,
those who would be ordained priests or who would become lay
ministers in the
church, but also continue, as I know it has done so
well in so many ways, to
continue with the cultural analysis as well as
the personal analysis that is
part of the formation here, so that we
might truly be a gift to the world,
both as individuals and as
Americans. That we might come to a point where we
understand how we are
to find our way in this kingdom, at this [time.]
"CTU is at a new moment . . . I congratulate you and with all my heart
I
thank you.
"This is also an occasion when we must ask what still has to
be
surrendered to Christ in order to receive it back as a gift from
him.
And if this occasion can be of that nature, well then truly CTU will
be
a far more important place, even than it has been so far.
"For the gift of faith, for the desire to see as Christ sees us, I
give
thanks to Almighty God. Amen."
(Transcription by Sun-Times religion reporter Cathleen Falsani.
Ellipses
appear only where the recording was unintelligible.)
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