Homily of the Most Reverend Jerome Edward Listecki

In our own American society we must present a clear alternative to the established secular religion which permeates our daily lives. We need to acknowledge mystery and our dependence upon God.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (Catholic Online) - We present the majority of the homily given by the new Archbishop of Milwukee at his installation Mass:

Homily of the Most Reverend Jerome Edward Listecki
Eleventh Archbishop of Milwaukee
Mass of Installation
Cathedral of St John the Evangelist
Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 4 January 2010

Thank you to my family and friends for wintering with me in Milwaukee. However, I know that you will find the spirit of hospitality and friendship easily providing the warmth that would rival Miami.

The gospel of John places Jesus in a dramatic confrontation with St. Peter. In what is often referred to as the post resurrection narratives, Jesus confronts Peter with a question "Do you Love Me?" The question must have ripped deep into the spirit of Peter, for this was the Peter who vowed never to leave the Lord's side, yet it was Peter who did in fact abandon Jesus in His darkest moments on the cross.

Peter was asked the question three times, reminding him through this questioning of his need to confront his personal failure in denying Christ, and to seek reconciliation from our Lord.

As a Church we have experienced the devastation of sin and its effect on us personally and as a community. We acknowledge that, at times, we too have failed to be witnesses of Christ. However, it is only in our true commitment to love that healing can occur and the Lord Jesus may be exalted.

The direction to Peter is to demonstrate His love for Jesus by feeding his lambs, tending his sheep, feeding his sheep. Jesus is asking Peter to care for His Church. The love for Jesus will be in the very sacrificial acts offered in service for the faithful. The service of Peter himself was destined to identify with the sacrificial cross of Christ's love, "Amen, Amen I say to you when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted: but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go."

The inspired word of God, although centered on the figures in the event depicted in Sacred Scripture, actually speaks through Peter to all of us. It is as if we are standing with Peter and Jesus is asking us, do you love me more than these?

Today the three repetitions of the Lord's question might easily address the three responsibilities of Episcopal office -- governing, teaching and sanctifying.

Do you love me enough to stand with me in unity and feed Christ's lambs? No one governs alone, but rather in collaboration with those he serves. Our strength as a Church comes from our union with our Universal Shepherd Benedict the XVI. In professing our union with the Holy Father we make it clear that this unity is a reflection of our desire to follow Christ in His Church. After His ascension into heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the Lord Jesus Christ remains present as the invisible Shepherd of His Church (1Peter 2:25) until appearing once more at the end of ages (CCCB 1974).

The office of the bishop is the link between the particular church which is entrusted to him in hierarchical communion with the Universal Church. In our own American society we must present a clear alternative to the established secular religion which permeates our daily lives. We need to acknowledge mystery and our dependence upon God. It is in our faithfulness in reflecting the mind and the heart of our Church that represents the singular voice of Christ to our community and the world.

Do you love me more than these? Then tend my sheep. The teaching office of the bishop helps to form and inform the faithful in their relationship to Christ and His Church. The goal for most teachers is that their students come to know and appreciate the subject matter they are presenting. In the teaching role of the bishop, the task is literally to come and to know the subject Jesus Himself, so that He the Christ may be taken into their lives.
As St Paul said so well, it is no longer I that lives but Christ who lives in me. The truth of the Church's teaching is to draw us into a relationship with the Lord.

The Church presents the Truth in Charity. It is the truth of the teaching that maintains our right relationship with Jesus. Our teaching on the dignity of the human person embraces life from the moment of conception to natural death. It reflects the love of life entrusted to us. This sacredness, which reflects the Imago Dei - the image of God - It is this very life for which Christ came into the world, to suffer, die and rise. In our social principles our care for the poor and neglected is mandated out of a love of neighbor grounded in the love of God.

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As Benedict the XVI teaches: It is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level: from the local community to the particular Church and to the Church universal in its entirety. As a community the Church must practice love. In our protection of marriage and family life an environment is created for the responsible transmission of the faith.

Adherence to the Church's teaching is not always easy. However, one must sacrifice for the truth. In this sacrifice we demonstrate our love. It is interesting to note that John Paul the II was applauded by the Western societies when he critiqued the godless communism of the east for their lack of individual rights and freedoms, yet those very same western societies turned a deaf ear to his warnings of the destructiveness of radical individualism, consumerism, materialism and relativism.

Given our situation today perhaps we should have paid more attention. The truth is at times difficult but the Church does not follow the Lord's request to tend his sheep if it fails to teach the truth with love.

Do you love me? Then feed my sheep. The role of the sanctifying office is one joined uniquely to our common vocation to holiness. The sacraments are signs of grace in our lives. The Lord gives to us the gift of himself in the Eucharist. The centrality of Eucharistic celebration unites us to a sacrificial act of Jesus' love. In the very beginnings of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles we read of the disciples devoting themselves to the teachings of the apostles and to the communal life, the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. The symbol of the cross is no longer a sign of death but has been transformed to represent hope. The cross now declares just how great our God's love is for us that he did not even spare His only Son for our sake.

This sacrificial act continues through the exercise of the priestly office, the priest who in persona Christi offers the bread and wine which becomes the body and blood of our Lord. We, the poor and hungry, come to be fed again and again so that we might take this real presence into the world. John Paul II in his work Duc in Altum his reflections on the Third Millennium of Christianity offered that the great renewal in the Church would come from the two sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist -- Mercy and Sacrificial Love. Our participation in the sacraments and our personal devotional life will demonstrate the transformative power of prayer and will begin the great renewal of our faith life.

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Do you love me? In Governing, Teaching and Sanctifying together we will answer that question with lives placed at the service of His Church.

We are fortunate to celebrate today the feast day of Elizabeth Ann Seton the first American-born saint. There was nothing easy about her life. The sickness and death of her spouse, her conversion and rejection by her family, a single mother educating her children and raising them in the faith.The world would easily have justified her cursing her lot in life. Yet this woman, armed with her faith, begins the Catholic School system, establishes a religious order and shapes the Catholic Church in the United States for the next century. What generates this kind of dedicated commitment? It is a confidence in God.

In Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's own words: "What was the first rule of our dear Savior's life? You know it was to do his Father's will. Well, then, the first purpose of our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills. And thirdly, to do it because it is his will. We know certainly that our God calls us to a holy life. We know that he gives us every grace, every abundant grace; and though we are so weak of ourselves, this grace is able to carry us through every obstacle and difficulty." (From the writings of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton)

I am now installed as the eleventh bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. There are many bishops and priests more intelligent, more talented, and more deserving of this position than me. I say this not with a false sense of humility, but merely as fact. However, His Holiness, Benedict the XVI has made his selection and I accept his decision as God's will....

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