5th Sunday of Lent
Installation of Fr. Uju
St. Francis Xavier Parish, Baltimore
April 6, 2025
A New Chapter
Good morning! I’m happy to be with all of you today and on this occasion to install Father Uju as your pastor, assisted in this role by Father Obinna. Let’s express our thanks to these great priests who have already become a part of your parish community and who are dedicating themselves to lead St. Francis Xavier, the oldest Black Catholic parishes in the United States, into a future full of hope. Thank you, dear brothers!
And dear friends, I know you’ve been on a journey. Not an easy journey. A journey with twists, turns, hills, valleys, and yes, some potholes. Decisions to realign parishes are never easy and I sincerely thank you for participation and patience throughout the process, including the process of providing new leadership for St. Francis Xavier. And I thank you for all you have done through the years to support your parish and to carry forward its mission, through thick and thin. With you I am grateful to the Josephites, especially to Bishop Ricard, who came to express his love and respect for you, even as one chapter in your parish life ends and a new one begins. This morning I also want to thank and welcome parishioners from St. Wenceslaus and St. Ann, and with you I pray that this newly merged parish will continue to flourish far into the future.
As you know, Father Uju and Father Obinna are Spiritans, members of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, founded in France in 1703 with a charism of evangelizing. For them, evangelizing, spreading the Gospel, is not a program. It is a mission given and driven by the Holy Spirit, something that to which they dedicate their whole lives. They are missionaries and we are a mission field. Already they’ve been ministering here in Baltimore and I’m grateful for their witness to Christ Jesus in Baltimore’s neighborhoods.
What Makes Them Tick?
So on this day of Fr. Uju’s installation, let’s ask the question, “What makes priests like Father Uju tick?” What gets them up in the morning? What do they choose to be mission fields that others avoid? I think St. Paul has something to say about that this morning!
St. Paul never wanted to follow Christ or to be an apostle. But on the Road to Damascus, he was knocked off his horse. He encountered Christ, the Risen Christ, and that changed everything. Today Paul tells us, “I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord!” What gets Fr. Uju and Fr. Obinna up in the morning? The supreme good of knowing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And that’s what should get US up in the morning.
But Paul’s meeting with Christ on the way to Damascus wasn’t a one and done. He met Christ again and again and that’s why he tells us that the most important thing in his life & ours is “being found” in Jesus Christ, being able to say that ‘it’s not we who live but Christ who lives in us,’ knowing by experience the faithfulness of Jesus, professing and singing together, “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Jesus was faithful to the Father in dying to destroy our death, faithful in rising to restore our life, faithful in sending us the Holy Spirit. ‘Great [indeed] is [his] faithful[ness!’ After he came to know Christ Jesus, the only other important thing in Paul’s life was to help others, not just to know about Jesus, but to know and love Jesus, whose love is worth more than everything else. That’s what gets your priests up in the morning! That’s what makes them tick!
But they don’t “tick” alone. They want to tick along with you, in unison and in harmony. Because only when we’re together, united in one mission and blending harmoniously the gifts of the Spirit given to each and every member of this community – only then will the mission of Jesus Christ break through to new frontiers, to the minds and hearts of those who’ve never heard, to neighborhoods where sometimes the Lord is all but unknown, to those in such difficult situations that it’s hard to hear anyone, even the Lord!
Missionaries don’t look backwards. They look forwards. Like or not, that who you’ve got on your hands: Missionaries! Forward-looking missionaries . . . missionaries like St. Paul who forget what lay behind but strained forward to what lay ahead, always pointing towards the goal – life on high in Christ Jesus! These good priests want to be with you. They need you. They love you!
Woman Caught in Adultery
And when they invite you to share in this great adventure, this great mission, please don’t anyone say, “Lord I’m not ready.” “Lord, I’m not worthy.” Paul makes it really clear that the Lord wasn’t finished with him yet and he’s not finished with me or you or Fr. Uju. Just look at what the Lord did for the disgraced woman in the Gospel. He treated her with kindness, compassion, rest and in the process he changed her life. I can’t tell you how many times the Lord’s mercy has change my life! The Lord can do that for each of us and all of us, and that too is part of Fr. Uju’s mission as he celebrates the baptizes, celebrates the Eucharist, hears Confessions,ministers to the sick and dying, prepares couples for marriage . . .he’s here to share with you and everyone the same reconciling love that the Lord has poured out on this world for more than 2,000 years.
So let us rejoice and be glad. We’ve rounded the corner on Lent; we’re in the last week of Lent. We’re getting ready to celebrate Christ’s high priestly acts: his entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Cross, the Resurrection. Guided by these good priests, may you enter into Holy Week with renewed hearts, for it is renewed hearts that make for a renewed parish and a future full of hope.