Christ the King
Installation of Fr. John Martinez
St. Francis de Sales / Prince of Peace Pastorate
November 26, 2023
A Day of Joy and Grace
I am delighted – even after all these months – officially to install Father John Martinez as Pastor here at St. Francis de Sales and at Prince of Peace, and to do so on this Solemnity of Christ the King. It is a beautiful day of joy and grace in which we acclaim Christ as our Shepherd and our Redeemer who lifts up the lowly. And the Scripture readings for this Feast shed much light on what it means to serve as a pastor, a shepherd of God’s people.
Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
In the reading from the prophet Ezekiel, God promises to look after his sheep. His prophet’s words were first addressed to the people of Israel who had been scattered by exile and wondered if they would ever again be a nation. God promises that he himself will be their shepherd, that he will seek out those who were lost and those who were injured, that he will gathered them together again, bind up their wounds, and heal them. God fulfilled this promise is ways that exceeded all expectations. For he sent his eternal Son, Jesus Christ, into the world as our Shepherd. Indeed, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who gathers God’s people from every time and place, from every language and culture. He knows us, he cares for us, he heals us of our infirmities. On this Feast of Christ the King, let us acclaim Jesus as our Good Shepherd, and let us thank him for calling us out of darkness into his own wonderful light, for gathering us together in his Church, and for remaining with us until the end of time.
Like every priest and pastor, Father John, you are called to walk in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd. In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the Holy Spirit transformed your soul implanting in your depths the image of Christ, Head and Shepherd of his People. And the Holy Spirit continually pours God’s love into your heart as you seek, together with your people, to engage in the mission Christ entrusted to the Apostles before ascending to his Father: ‘go, teach, baptize.’ Like the Good Shepherd himself, the first priority of every good pastor is to gather together God’s people, especially those who have strayed, those who have lost their way, those who are injured, those who are dispirited.
As you know so well, this is not something you do alone, but together with your co-workers and fellow disciples, as you continually transform this pastorate into a community on mission, a community that goes out beyond itself to evangelize and gather in those who, like all of us, stand in need of the Good Shepherd’s redeeming love.
1st Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
In the reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle turns our gaze toward the redeeming love of Christ our King. Jesus is our King because he has conquered the forces of sin and death, and he did so by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead. Raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death, Christ must reign in our hearts, and Christ must reign in our local church and in our parish communities. We must allow Christ to destroy anything and everything that dominates us, that distracts us from the heavenly realities for which our hearts were made, that veers us off course from being the Lord’s disciples and living as a people of hope. Thus, even now, while we are still living on this earth, we begin to share in and experience the joy of the resurrection, as Christ lifts us up from the death of sin and implants in us his imperishable life. In the midst of life’s many challenges, even its severest challenges, our hearts can be like a spiritual paradise “where God may walk and be our sole rule with his Christ” (Origen).
This brings us to heart of the priesthood, the vocation to which we, your priests, were called, and the greatest service that we can render you as God’s People. For by Holy Orders, a priest is empowered to act in the person of Christ, to preach as he preached, to forgive sins in his name, his person, and his power, to re-present on the altar his one sacrifice that brings salvation to the whole world. We, your priests and pastors live to make accessible in the world today all that Christ our King did so save us, all he did to transform our lives, all he did to conquer in us the forces of sin and death. Following in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, your pastor seeks to gather together God’s people around the Eucharistic table at which we share in Jesus’ gift of self, his death which takes away our sins, his resurrection by which even now begin to live that new life which we shall fully share in when enter the bright portal of eternity. For as we sing at the Easter Vigil, “Christ has conquered, glory fills you, darkness vanishes forever!”
Matthew 25: 31-46
At length we turn our gaze towards the Gospel proclamation from St. Matthew where Jesus identifies himself with the poor and the lowly. Those whom the world counts as nothing count for everything in Jesus’ Kingdom, and we are judged by whether we loved Christ by loving the poor. If we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, he open them to Christ, and seeing Christ in our heart of hearts, we will also have eyes that can see with compassion and respect those who are hungry, thirsty, sick, imprisoned, homeless, and newly arrived – and we will embrace them as though we were embracing Christ himself. This is not social work, good and important as that is, nor civic virtue and responsibility, good and important as that is. Rather, it is a love that flows from the Gospel and leads others to the Gospel, a love by which we truly acclaim Christ to be our shepherd, our redeemer, our king.
Essential to every pastor’s mission is the work of continually forming his parish to be a community of Word, Sacrament, and Charity. For every parish must engage in many forms of hands-on charity, of concrete service to the poor, the needy, and vulnerable, and to do so as a direct result of listening to God’s Word and acting upon it, and sharing in the redeeming love of the Savior and extending that love to others.
The Day of Christ Jesus
I know that your pastorate engages in many forms of evangelization and outreach, and from the moment he came among you, Fr. John has offered you vigorous, joyful, mission-oriented leadership coupled with genuine pastoral love. On this feast of Christ the King, let us rejoice and give thanks, confident that he who has begun this good work in our midst will bring it to completion, and that it will be part of his eternal harvest when he comes again in glory! May God bless you and keep you always in his love!