Rite of Election
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
February 26, 2023
A Warm Welcome
Let me renew my warmest welcome to all of you who have come together in this Cathedral Church for the Rite of Election. We have come together from every part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This assembly represents our local church in all its beautiful diversity. It also gives evidence that, even in these challenging times, the Spirit of God is at work in our midst, at work in our hearts, opening them to the Person of Christ and to the Gospel, preparing our hearts to share anew in the saving death and resurrection of Christ, and to do so by sharing in the Church’s sacramental life as also by living our faith day-by-day until the eternal day dawns upon us.
With us this afternoon, are those of you preparing for Baptism and your sponsors. I welcome you with all my heart! St. Augustine once described the newly baptized as “the very flower of our ministry, the fruit of our toil, my joy and my crown.” I feel the same way about you, as do my brother priests and their co-worker. After all, the mission entrusted to the Church is to go, make disciples, and to baptize! Thank you for opening your heart to Christ, to the Gospel, and to the Church!
Joining us this afternoon are those of you preparing to complete your initiation into the Church. You are already baptized into Christ Jesus and now you seek to become fully a part of the Church by the Sacrament of Confirmation and by receiving for the first time Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ. Your drawing near to the heart of the Church is also at the heart of my ministry – and that of my brother bishops and priests and all of our co-workers. How welcome you are in this joyful assembly!
The Cause of Our Joy
While we thank God for the abundance of the harvest we see before us, the cause of our joy is deeper than mere numbers. The cause of the joy we share this afternoon is the depth of God’s love for us. We rejoice because God the Father has elected, chosen, to send his Son into the world to become one of us, to suffer, to die, and to rise, for the sake of the world’s salvation, for our sakes. We rejoice because, as John’s Gospel proclaims, “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus has laid down his life for us out of love, and the Holy Spirit has called you to participate deeply in that love – through the Sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, Confirmation, and the Eucharist. We rejoice because it was not you who chose Christ but Christ who chose you and who now calls you to draw near to him, through the Word of God proclaimed in the Church and through the Sacraments. We rejoice because to-day, through God’s grace, you and your sponsors will say a resounding “yes!” to the call and election that is yours. Chosen by God, responsive to the grace of your election, I am confident that you will live the Christian life faithfully and fruitfully.
Living the Christian Life Faithfully and Fruitfully
But what does that look like? St. James gives us sketch in today’s reading. He first asks us to understand that every good gift comes from above. The gift of faith, the gift of being a Catholic Christian is a gift from God the Father, and a wonderful sign of God’s love and favor lavished upon you. St. James says that God willed “to give us birth by the word of truth” – that is to say, to baptize us into Christ Jesus and into the Gospel – and if we are already baptized to purify, confirm, and deepen the baptism we received.
The immensity of God’s love for us, however, overflows into our way of life. Becoming a Christian is not merely an ethical choice or an aesthetic choice. It is not merely our decision to try to be a better person nor is it reducible to an affinity for the beauty of the Church’s worship. No, God’s election and your acceptance of his call is life-changing. Henceforth, you will be swimming in the waters of new life that change everything. In a word, you will be enabled to love as God loves, to speak as God speaks, to act as God would act in the concrete circumstances of your life. Thus St. James admonishes us to be: “quick to hear”, quick to hear God’s Word and to listen to others with patient love; “slow to speak”, slow to speak words that injure, defame, and scandalize; “slow to wrath”, slow to engage in the self-righteous rage so prevalent in our culture. Think about it: if in God’s grace we’d be quick to hear, slow to speak, & slow to wrath, …think how our relationship with God, our families, and our co-workers would be transformed. Without saying a word, we’d be proclaiming the Gospel and bearing good fruit.
That is why, through the Apostle James, the Lord is inviting you not merely to adopt a “brand” of religion that may be appealing to you, but to do something much more beautiful and profound: to peer into the heart of the Gospel, that is, into the heart of Christ, there to discover anew your dignity, your destiny, and what freedom really means – the freedom to be a doer of the Word, the freedom to live the Gospel with joy, the freedom “to live in this passing world with our heart set on the world that is to come” – that is – heaven.
Intense Preparation
There lies ahead of you intense preparation for the Easter sacraments. There is much to learn, much to know, much to understand. There is the work of coming to know ourselves as we truly are so that we may repent of our sins and allow the Lord to heal our spiritual wounds. There is the work of removing any and all impediments that would hinder us from the unalloyed joy of knowing and loving Christ and sharing his truth, life, and love in the midst of the Church. May God’s abundant grace be yours throughout these forty days of Lent and may God keep you and your loved ones always in his love!
Remarks in Spanish
Hoy ha venido de toda la Arquidiócesis de Baltimore aquí a la Catedral de María Nuestra Reina. Tu presencia hoy y el camino que has emprendido en la Iglesia es un gran signo de esperanza para toda la Iglesia.
San Agustín una vez describió a los recién bautizados como “la flor misma de nuestro ministerio, el fruto de nuestro trabajo, mi gozo y mi corona”. Siento lo mismo por ti, al igual que mis hermanos sacerdotes y su colaboradores. ¡Después de todo, la misión encomendada a la Iglesia es ir, hacer discípulos y bautizar! ¡Gracias por abrir vuestro corazón a Cristo, al Evangelio ya la Iglesia!
Hoy nos regocijamos porque Cristo os ha elegido y habéis respondido a su amor. En los próximos meses, prepararéis vuestros corazones para recibir los Sacramentos. Estos dones de la gracia te darán el poder para ser un hacedor de la palabra, para compartir con otros lo que primero recibiste.
Oro para que las próximas semanas sean un tiempo para crecer en tu amistad con Jesús, mirar en su corazón y encontrar en él la fuente de nuestra dignidad, destino y libertad.
Has sido elegido por Dios y hoy nos alegramos de que hayas dicho “Sí” a su invitación. Que Dios te bendiga y te guarde siempre en su amor.