Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades

  • Midnight Mass Homily

    December 25, 2011

    What a contrast! The great emperor Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man of that age, the ruler of the vast Roman emperor, gives and order and everyone has to obey. Throughout his empire, everyone had to get themselves enrolled in the tax registers, so that there would be enough taxes collected to finance the emperor’s many needs: to finance and expand his military power; to lay down the great network of roads and aqueducts throughout the Roman empire; and to construct the great palaces and theaters, baths and stadiums.

    In comparison, how trivial it would seem in the eyes of the world to that couple in the obscure village of Nazareth in Galilee. Mary and Joseph obeyed the imperial command and set out to enroll in the tax registers of Joseph’s hometown of Bethlehem. They were quite insignificant – not only was there no imperial palace at their disposal; there was not even room for them in the local inn. They had to make due with a stable for Mary to give birth.

    But notice, tonight, all over the world, people gather like we do here in Immaculate Conception Cathedral, not to celebrate the emperor Augustus Caesar. We gather to celebrate that birth of an infant in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem. For it is not the emperor dressed in the finest robes who is the real lord of the world, but rather, the little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. The names of the Roman emperors, like those of other great men of this world, have long passed away and are little remembered. Yet, everywhere on earth, the birth of this child is remembered with joy.

    On that holy night in Bethlehem, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.” That light is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. When we contemplate the mystery of Christmas, that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to redeem it, that He who was in the form of God emptied Himself and took the form of a slave, that the eternal Word who was with God, who was God, became flesh and dwelt among us, we cannot help but be filled with wonder and awe. We become like the shepherds and the magi: all we can do is approach the mystery in adoration. This event surpasses all human knowledge. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote: “Of all the works of God, this surpasses reason more than any other, since one cannot conceive of God doing anything more wonderful than that (the) true God the Son of God, should be made true man.” Do we not express our reverence for this great mystery every time we recite the Nicene Creed? We bow (and tonight we genuflect) at the words: “by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary and became man.”

    By becoming man, God has in a certain way united Himself with every human person. He has revealed to us the truth about who He is – He is Love. He has revealed to us also that every human being has dignity, including the unborn child, the poor, the outcast, the suffering, and the dying. By becoming man, God came to earth to deliver us from sin and death. He came to make all things new; to bring about the new creation. He took on our human nature so that we might become partakers of His divine nature, that we become sharers in the life of the Blessed Trinity. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church speak of the Christmas mystery as “a wonderful exchange” between God and man: He takes what is ours so that He may give us what is His. In sending His Son, God has opened for us a share in His divine life, the power, Saint John says, to become children of God! (John 3:12).

    Saint Francis of Assisi was so moved by the mystery of Christmas that he began the custom of the Christmas crèche, with live figures. His love for poverty led him to this special appreciation for the wonder of that first Christmas. One of his great followers, Saint Bonaventure, wrote the following: “The King of kings and Lord of lords has become the slave and humble servant of men… God, supremely glorious, dwelling in the heights of majesty, has dwelt in a lonely manger.” Tonight we do not gather to honor or to worship a powerful emperor. We gather to honor and to worship the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, the One announced by the angel as the Savior, who is Christ and Lord. We worship Him who gives meaning to our lives, who offers us eternal life and salvation. In becoming man, He has brought eternity to us and so we live as a people of hope. This virtue of hope is truly a virtue of Christmas, a virtue that should distinguish our lives as followers of Jesus. In the midst of so much anxiety and despair in our world, may we be witnesses of Christian hope!

    May Jesus, born in the silence of this night at Bethlehem, bless you and your loved ones with His love and peace!

    Posted on December 27, 2011, to:

  • Contemplate the first Christmas

    “The Nativity” by French painter Noel Coypel features Mary, Joseph and angels in adoration of the Christ Child.

    As we contemplate the love of God in the Incarnation, I invite you to reflect on the famous account of the first Christmas as described in the second chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke, the passage read at Christmas midnight Mass. In that account, we read about Mary and Joseph traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem where “there was no room for them in the inn.” We read about Mary giving birth to Jesus, and then about the appearance of the angels to the shepherds with the “good news of great joy… For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.” Continuing with the reading of Saint Luke’s Gospel, in the passage read at the Christmas Mass at Dawn, we read about the shepherds going to see “the infant lying in the manger” and their “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”

    In this Christmas column, I’d like to reflect on these witnesses of the first Christmas: Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. When we prepare our Christmas crèches, we place figures of these persons around the infant Jesus in the manger, along with an angel, the wise men, and often figures of sheep, donkey and ox. This tradition of the Christmas crèche originated with Saint Francis of Assisi who created a live nativity scene in the town of Greccio, Italy, a few years prior to his death.

    The Blessed Virgin Mary

    In contemplating Christmas, we recall the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem for the census. The journey must not have been easy for Mary since she was nine months pregnant. We can only imagine the hardship of that journey as well as the hardship Mary and Joseph experienced when they were told that there was no room for them in the inn. Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God, in the most humble and poor circumstances: in a manger, a place where animals ate.

    Despite the difficult circumstances, what joy and wonder our Blessed Mother must have experienced in giving birth to the Redeemer of the world! At the Annunciation, Mary had expressed her complete willingness to cooperate in God’s plan when she said “let it be done to me according to your word.” Saint Augustine, a great bishop and doctor of the Church, praised Mary’s faith and obedience when he wrote that our Lady “conceived Christ in her heart before she conceived him in her womb.”

    After the departure of the shepherds, Saint Luke tells us that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” As we celebrate Christmas, Mary is an example to us of faith and humility, and also of receiving the Son of God into our lives and of treasuring the mystery of the Incarnation in our hearts. Through prayer and contemplation, we are better able to enter into the mystery we celebrate at Christmas, the mystery of salvation, following the example of the Mother of the Savior.

    Saint Joseph

    In contemplating Christmas, it is good to reflect on the husband of Mary, the foster father of Our Lord. Blessed John Paul II referred to Saint Joseph as “the first guardian,” together with Mary, of the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption. Like Mary, Joseph is exemplary in his faith and obedience. After the angel’s announcement to him in a dream, Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife.”

    Saint Joseph was the guardian of the Holy Family, including on that journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. He was an eyewitness to the birth of Jesus. Later, at the circumcision, Joseph named the child “Jesus,” thus proclaiming the mission of the newborn child as Savior, since the name “Jesus” means “the one who saves.”

    As Mary contemplated the event of the first Christmas in her heart, we can imagine that Joseph did the same. Saint Joseph surrendered his whole life to the care of Jesus and Mary. Very early on, when Jesus’ life was threatened by King Herod at the massacre of the Holy Innocents, Saint Joseph protected Jesus when he took him and Mary and fled into Egypt.

    Saint Joseph is the patron of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo XIII wrote: “It is … fitting and most worthy of Joseph’s dignity that, in the same way that he once kept unceasing holy watch over the family of Nazareth, so now does he protect and defend with his heavenly patronage the Church of Christ.” God entrusted the beginnings of our redemption to the faithful care of Saint Joseph. We ask Saint Joseph to help us to imitate his faithfulness and purity of heart.

    The Shepherds

    It is not incidental that God chose shepherds, the lowly and unrefined, as the first to receive the good news of the Savior’s birth. They were struck with great fear when the angel of the Lord appeared to them. Immediately, the angel told them to fear not and proclaimed to them “the good news of great joy” of Jesus’ birth. They then went in haste to adore the infant Jesus.

    The shepherds remind us of God’s merciful love, which is especially shown toward the poor and humble. The shepherds are an example for us since they responded enthusiastically and immediately to the angel’s invitation. They are also an example for us of our mission of evangelization. Saint Luke tells us that after adoring the infant Jesus, they returned “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”

    Prayer

    As we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord, let us pray for one another that we may follow the example of Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. You, the faithful of our diocese, will be remembered in my prayers in a special way throughout the Christmas season. May you and your families and friends have a blessed and merry Christmas!

    I end this column with a prayer for Christmas Eve, actually an invitation to prayer, composed by Pope Benedict XVI:

    Let us ask the Lord to grant us the grace of looking upon the crib this night with the simplicity of the shepherds, so as to receive the joy with which they returned home (cf. Luke 2:20). Let us ask Him to give us the humility and the faith with which Saint Joseph looked upon the child that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Lord to let us look upon Him with that same love with which Mary saw Him. And let us pray that in this way the light that the shepherds saw will shine upon us too, and that what the angels sang that night will be accomplished throughout the world: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”Amen!

    Posted on December 21, 2011, to:

  • Parish visits and Catholic Charities

    Parish visits

    One of my goals after my installation as Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend was to visit and celebrate Holy Mass at all the parishes of our diocese. I wanted to do so within two years. Happily, I will have accomplished this goal this Sunday, December 18th, when I celebrate Mass at Saint Catherine of Alexandria Parish in Nix Settlement. I still need to visit and celebrate Mass at Saint Paul Chapel in Clear Lake, a mission of Saint Anthony Parish in Angola, which I hope to do next year.

    Visiting, celebrating the Eucharist, and preaching the Word of God in our parishes has been one of my greatest joys as bishop. I wish to thank all our parish priests and all the parishioners for the warm welcome I have received in every parish. It is inspiring to see the vitality of parish life in our diocese, amid the great diversity of parishes: urban, suburban and rural; large and small and mid-sized. I have enjoyed learning the history of our parishes as well.

    The Church of Christ is concretely present in our parish communities where the faithful gather together in prayer, where the Word of God is preached and the sacraments are celebrated. God’s wonderful gifts of grace are received and all are called to respond with faith, hope, and love to the call of the Gospel.

    Blessed John Paul II once said that the parish is more than an association. He said that “it must be a home where the members of the Body of Christ gather together, open to meeting God the Father, full of love and Savior in his Son, incorporated into the Church by the Holy Spirit at the time of their Baptism, and ready to accept their brothers and sisters with fraternal love. …”

    In visiting our parishes, I have often spoken of the need for our parishes to be “evangelizing communities.” By this I mean that a parish should never be closed in on itself, but always reaching out beyond the parish to welcome new members and to spread the Gospel to others by word and deed. The Church is missionary by its very nature. We are to heed the mandate of the Lord “to go and make disciples of all nations.” There is a strong sense in our parishes of the essential relationship to the bishop and the diocesan Church as well as to our Holy Father and the universal Church.

    As a diocese, we have embarked on the Catholics Come Home campaign which I wrote about in the last issue of Today’s Catholic. This effort to welcome home our brothers and sisters who have not been active in the practice of the faith is an important expression of our commitment to the mission of the new evangelization. Of course, we are called to reach out to the unchurched with the saving message of the Gospel, yet I think it is important to give a certain priority to outreach to those who are already Catholic, yet are not coming to church. Let us pray fervently during this time for the return of inactive Catholics to the practice of the faith.

    Catholic Charities

    As we approach Christmas, the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, we are especially mindful of the needy in our midst. As we recall the poverty and humility of Our Savior’s birth, we are called to recognize Jesus’ presence in the poor and to extend His love to those who are in need.

    It is appropriate that every Christmas in our diocese a special collection is taken up in our parishes for the support of Catholic Charities. As we plan our Christmas gifts, I invite you to be generous in this collection, a monetary gift in support of the work of Catholic Charities of our diocese.

    So many individuals and families are assisted daily in our diocese by Catholic Charities. The needy receive assistance with basic needs, such as housing, utilities, food and clothing. I think, for example, of the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program, which has served over 4,000 families and over 15,000 individuals this past year. Through this and many other programs, the Church is reaching out in love to our neighbors in need. Catholic Charities of our diocese provides services to nearly 20,000 people each year.

    Catholic Charities is in special need of our generosity this year. It has had to continue its work with fewer resources due to less governmental funding. We need to try to make up for this by increasing income from donations.

    I wish to thank all those who support the mission of Catholic Charities through their gifts. I also wish to thank the dedicated staff, employees, board members and volunteers of Catholic Charities.

    In the second part of his beautiful encyclical God Is Love, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI wrote about the charitable mission of the Church. He wrote: The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God, celebrating the sacraments, and exercising the ministry of charity. These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.

    As we prepare to celebrate our Savior’s birth, let us focus our attention on “the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And let us remember the later words of Jesus in the parable of the last judgment: “As you did it for one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). In the words of Pope Benedict, Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.

    Posted on December 13, 2011, to:

  • Catholics Come Home

    When asked what my top priority as bishop is, without hesitation I answer “the new evangelization.” Both Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have recognized the need for a new missionary season in the Church through the proclamation of the good news of the Gospel with new ardor and energy, new methods and expressions, inviting others to discover anew the attraction of following Christ in the Catholic Church.

    Last Christmas, we distributed over 50,000 copies of the book Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly. I was grateful to receive a wonderful response from so many people in our diocese to this book, which has helped them to grow in their Catholic faith. I was especially happy when I learned from people who were not very active in the practice of their faith that the book helped them to appreciate their faith more and to become more active in the Church.

    This year, we are embarking on another project that is part of the “new evangelization” in our diocese. We are partnering with the national (and international) Catholics Come Home organization to invite and encourage inactive Catholics to return home to the practice of the faith.

    Catholics Come Home uses the media in this important task of the new evangelization, specifically television messages and an interactive website. This media campaign has been quite successful in many dioceses that have used it. The campaign will take place in our diocese from December 16, 2011, until January 31, 2012. The TV commercials that will air during this time are truly inspirational.

    Our faith is a precious gift from God that gives meaning to our lives and strengthens us to live as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, there are many members of our family of faith who have drifted away from the practice of the faith. We miss them and their participation with us at Holy Mass. Many inactive Catholics still believe in Christ and identify themselves as Catholic, yet, for various reasons, have drifted away from active participation in the life of the Church. Research shows that only a small percentage left the Church for doctrinal reasons. Most became inactive due to social stresses that devalued religious affiliation and practice, influences of our increasingly secularized culture.

    Many inactive Catholics who have returned have said that they were waiting for an invite. That is what the Catholics Come Home program is all about. It is a warm invitation to these, our brothers and sisters, to come home. We hope to welcome them with the peace and love of Christ.

    The Catholics Come Home program calls all of us and all our parishes to have a zeal for evangelization, which means that we warmly welcome home our brothers and sisters who are moved by this media campaign to return to the Church. We should not be afraid to share our faith with our neighbors nor to defend our faith with our detractors. Every parish should be active in its outreach to fallen-away Catholics and to the unchurched.

    I think you will find the television commercials to be very inspirational. They include an ad, which emphasizes the history, beauty, spirituality and accomplishments of the Catholic Church over her 2,000 year history. Another ad, a reflective “movie of your life,” teaches that it is never too late to ask for God’s forgiveness and to accept His mercy. Others are mini-documentaries that consist of dozens of real Catholics who share their stories of leaving the Church and the joy and peace they found upon their return.

    I imagine that most of the people of our diocese will see the commercials on TV, however you can also view the commercials and learn more about the campaign on the national Catholics Come Home website www.catholicscomehome.org

    Our diocesan Catholics Come Home website is up and running, so I invite you to check it out at www.catholicscomehomefwsb.org. One part of the website is a Catholic FAQ. This series of questions and answers can be very helpful for those who have questions about the faith.

    We are beginning this important evangelizing effort in the middle of the season of Advent, as we approach the Solemnity of Christmas. It is a time when we celebrate the great event of the Incarnation, that God in His infinite love for us, sent His Son as our Savior. As Saint John wrote: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). This is the message we proclaim in our mission of evangelization. This is the Good News of our Christian faith. Through the Catholics Come Home campaign, we are inviting our brothers and sisters to embrace this truth anew through active participation in the Church which is Christ’s Body and through which He gives us His grace.

    The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of all evangelization, so I ask all the faithful of our diocese to join me in invoking the Holy Spirit in praying for the success of this campaign. Let us pray during the holy seasons of Advent and Christmas that many non-practicing Catholics will indeed come home, will return to the sacraments, and join us at the table of the Lord.

    I also entrust this intention of the return of inactive Catholics to the Church to our Blessed Mother, whom we invoke as the “Star of Evangelization.” In the words of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, “The Virgin Mary, who did not communicate to the world an idea but Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is an unparalleled model of evangelization.” May she make us all aware of being missionaries, sent by her Son to be His witnesses! May Mary, the Star of Evangelization, intercede for us in this campaign and intercede for all those whom we are inviting to come home!

    Posted on December 6, 2011, to:

  • The Immaculate Conception

    On Thursday, December 8th, the universal Church will celebrate the beautiful Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation. This feast has special significance for us since the Immaculate Conception is both the patroness of the United States and the patroness of our diocese.

    The Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, at the request of the Bishops of the United States in 1846, was declared patroness of the United States by Pope Pius IX the following year, seven years before the same pontiff proclaimed the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, in 1854. Six years later, on December 8, 1860, when our cathedral in Fort Wayne was consecrated, it was given the title of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

    Lourdes

    As we approach December 8th, my thoughts go back to World Youth Day this past August. On our way to Madrid, the young pilgrims from our diocese and I spent 2 ½ beautiful days in Lourdes as spiritual preparation for World Youth Day. Many of our young people have told me that our time in Lourdes was the highlight of their pilgrimage. It was truly a highlight for me, especially celebrating Holy Mass at the grotto where Our Lady appeared to Saint Bernadette.

    The apparitions in Lourdes took place in 1858. The young Bernadette did not know the identity of the beautiful lady who appeared to her 18 times. When Our Lady appeared to her on March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, Bernadette asked her name. Mary’s reply, in Bernadette’s native dialect, was I am the Immaculate Conception. In a way, this reply was a kind of confirmation of the dogma defined by Pope Pius IX just four years earlier.

    Lourdes had a powerful impact on me and our young people. It is a holy place where we experienced the joy of our faith in Christ and our spiritual closeness to His Immaculate Mother. It is a place where many miraculous physical cures have occurred. It is also a place where there is much spiritual healing, a place where the sinless Mother of God continues to bring strength and consolation to her beloved children.

    Meaning of the dogma

    These are the words of Blessed (Pope) Pius IX in defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854:

    We declare, proclaim, and define that this dogma is revealed by God and therefore to be firmly and unremittingly believed by all the faithful: namely, the dogma which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege from Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, was kept free of every stain of original sin.

    Though this dogma was not defined until the 19th century, Mary’s absolute holiness was a belief of Christians since the early centuries of the Church. In the East, there was a feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary celebrated as early as the 7th century. All agreed that Mary was preserved from all personal sin, but through the centuries, especially in the Middle Ages, there was much debate about whether or not Mary had contracted original sin. Some felt that immunity from original sin would compromise the important teaching that original sin had to be remitted by Christ, the Redeemer, and no one could be redeemed apart from Him.

    A theological solution to this dilemma was proposed by Blessed Duns Scotus, a Franciscan theologian of the 13th century. He defended Mary’s privilege of immunity from original sin from the moment of her conception. He explained that this did not detract from the Redemption brought by Christ. Mary too was included in the Redemption and she received it from her Son at the moment of her conception. This is called “preservative redemption.” That is why in the dogmatic definition, the Pope said that Mary’s Immaculate Conception was “a singular grace and privilege from Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ.” This settled the controversy. The universality of the redemption remains intact. Mary was really redeemed by her Son at the first moment of her existence.

    Mary was truly, as the angel Gabriel announced, “full of grace.” She was accorded the grace of redemption “in view of the merits of her Son.” Why was this? It was part of God’s plan. God destined Mary to become the Mother of his Son. How could she, even for a moment, have been in the power of the devil? The one who was to bring forth the Savior could not have been subject to the corruption that derives from original sin.

    Mary always by our side

    Mary’s holiness is an encouragement for us to seek her help and her protection in our efforts to overcome sin and to grow in holiness. Like us, she has been redeemed by Christ, but in an eminent and a privileged way. In this, she is like a sister to us, as well as our spiritual mother.

    The Blessed Mother is with us in the concrete situations of our lives. She helps and comforts us to face the trials and challenges of daily life. She watches over us from heaven. She guides our steps in the way of her Son. She helps us to make progress in our Christian lives, helps us with her motherly care to follow Jesus.

    May Mary Immaculate accompany us on our Advent journey! May she lead us to know, love, and adore the Son of God who became man in her holy womb!

    Posted on November 30, 2011, to: