Editor’s note: Here is Bishop Douglas J. Lucia’s homily for the Religious Jubilee at the Vigil of the Ascension on May 17.
Dear Jubilarians … Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
What a joy it is for the Church of Syracuse to gather this afternoon in this sacred space to celebrate lives consecrated to witness through Gospel living. Even more, to join this occasion to the celebration of Our Lord’s Ascension in which the great commission is heard to, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations …” (Mt 28:19)
Sisters and brothers, this commission is at the heart of the Church’s mission coming from our head … the one who sits at the Father’s right hand … and whom we are called to embody in our daily lives. In this moment, I am reminded of the prayer of another religious, St. Theresa of Avila, when she wrote: “Christ has no body but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body on earth but yours.”
Back in 2015, the Church was invited to observe a year of reflection and celebration of the consecrated life. Mirroring our second reading of Paul to the Church of Ephesus, religious women and men were invited particularly to reconnect with “the hope that belongs to God’s call” (see Eph 1:18) in their lives and through it to “wake up the world.”
Sisters and brothers, connect this commission with the scene at the end of our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (1:1-11). I am afraid to ask how many of you in your classrooms or other sites of ministry have found it necessary to be the messenger to “get to work” and “stop watching the clouds go by.” Indeed, Pope Francis in addressing women religious at the onset of the Year of Consecrated life stated: “I am counting on you ‘to wake up the world,’ since the distinctive sign of consecrated life is prophecy — to be prophets who witness to how Jesus lived on this earth — with the eloquence of your lives, lives which radiate the joy and beauty of living the Gospel and following Christ to the full.”
Brothers and sisters, more than ever in the present moment, such an engaging witness is needed. The baptismal commission for one to be a witness to all nations must be resurrected in a world where the value of religion, and indeed Jesus and his Church are highly suspect and questioned. As noted by Pope Francis and upon which I would expand: “The consecrated life — [indeed the life of today’s witnesses to the Risen Lord] — will not flourish as a result of brilliant vocation programs [sorry to all hardworking and dedicated vocation directors], but because the young people we meet find us attractive, because they see us as men and women who are happy — that our total self-giving of service to the Church, to families and young people, to the elderly and the poor, brings us lifelong personal fulfillment.”
That is what we are celebrating this afternoon, the dedication of these religious to the life in Christ and the fulfillment — the fruitfulness — it brings in the Lord’s vineyard. Yet such prophetic witness is actually an invitation to all gathered here to ask, “Do you think of yourself as a witness?” Jesus’ final words at his Ascension weren’t just for his apostles, they are for you and me, too. They invite us to consider how each one of us might wake up the world and witness to Jesus today. Every day presents a new opportunity — one that has the potential to lead another to a new or deeper love of the Lord.
Yes, Christ has no body on earth, but yours and mine, so “may the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe” (Eph 1:18-19). Dear sisters, happy Jubilee and thank you for your witness yesterday, today and forever.
