Homily
Solemnity of Pentecost B
26/27 May 2012
First Mass of Thanksgiving for newly ordained Fr. Oswaldo Sandoval
St. Agnes Catholic Church - Roeland Park, Kansas
Readings
Audio
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Alleluia!
We all recognize this refrain from the Mass of Easter Sunday. It is the psalm response for the entire Octave of Easter actually - this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Alleluia!
It is with the same joy of Easter Sunday that the Church ends the great season of Easter with the solemnity of Pentecost this weekend. But of course, if you're paying close attention, you know that what I just said is false. We do not gather on Pentecost Sunday with the same joy that we had on Easter morning; quite the contrary, we gather with a greater joy, a more profound joy, and more perfect joy, on the Solemnity of Pentecost. For Jesus said to those first apostles after His Resurrection - it is better for you that I go! Can I get an Amen?!? It is better for you that I go! For if I do not go, the Spirit, who will remind you of everything I did and said, and will send you to do greater things than I myself did, will not come!
If we take our Lord up on his word, we have no choice but to gather with an even greater and more perfect joy. In fact, how we gather at Pentecost tells us a lot about what we believe happened at Easter. For the Easter season has not been for us not a desperate hanging on to the memory of the Resurrection, not a careful attention to the last remaining ripple effect of the power of Easter morning. Quite the contrary, the Easter celebration of the Church, if it has been anything, has been a great crescendo of witnessing the power and truth and grace of the Resurrection redeeming the world from the inside out through the working of the Holy Spirit!
By the power of the same spirit, we in this very Easter season have been witnesses to greater things than those who were with our Lord during his Resurrection appearances. So Easter has not been a desperate remembering of how nice it would have been to have put our hand in Jesus' side like the apostle Thomas; no Easter has been a proclamation that we have seen greater things than this! For we have seen the Church filled with the Spirit at Pentecost do everything that Jesus did and say what He said. We have seen streams of living water flow out through the baptism of the old and young, through the incomparable newness and innocence of those receiving first communion. We have sen the Risen Lord active through his Holy Spirit in the celebration of confirmation, and that same Spirit stirred up through the graduation of many students. That same Spirit has created a new reality in the couples who have come for the sacrament of marriage.
If the women present at the tomb had reason to proclaim - We have seen the Risen Lord - so much more so do we who have lived through these 50 wonderful days of Easter. In the power of the Spirit given at Pentecost, we have seen greater things, and woe to us if we do not proclaim the Resurrection in an even more perfect and powerful way as we gather on this great Solemnity.
Oswaldo - Fr. Oswaldo - thank you for adding to our Easter joy, for giving us another chance to see the Risen Lord and the working of His Spirit, through your ordination this weekend. We have seen the Risen Lord today, Oswaldo - in you! as you have allowed yourself to be conformed into his living image through ordination. And thank you for the honor of preaching your first Mass of thanksgiving, an honor that I cherish and will never forget. You could have told me in advance that the Archbishop and his mother would be here, and although I now share with you the power to forgive sins, I haven't forgiven you for that quite yet, but even with the additional pressure, it is an honor nonetheless. You are a great man, Oswaldo, and I am happy to call you friend and brother, and I have been looking forward to sharing the priesthood with you.
You have the gifts of the Spirit in abundance, and the fruit of the Spirit in manifest in you. This was true even before you were ordained, which is why there are so many people surrounding you today excited that the Spirit that conformed you to Christ so that you may truly work in persona Christi capitis as His priest, will flow out from you in even more perfect and profound ways through your teaching and action as a priest. We expect great things from you, Oswaldo, not only because you have been given many gifts, but most of all because like Mary you have let the Holy Spirit overshadow you, and you have accepted the beautiful vocation to be a priest. Fr. Oswaldo, bring this same vulnerability and dependence on the Holy Spirit into your prayer, along with the humility, readiness and joy you have learned from our Blessed Mother into your priesthood, and our expectations for you will be as nothing compared to what God accomplishes in you, with you and through you.
Fr. Oswaldo, every vocation story is a miracle, but today we are particularly inspired by yours. Even in the Leaven the last two weeks, you have had a longer article and more pictures than the Archbishop who sits in choir in the sanctuary with you today - your story, and your ordination is a big deal! In fact, being the selfish guy that I am, I'm kind of tired of hearing about it. Just kidding. Thank you, Oswaldo, for letting us rejoice in your story, for in your story we see the protection of many angels, perhaps a miraculous intervention or two, the love of family and friends, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. How else could a young boy from El Salvador be here at this moment about to do what you are going to do, an act so amazing, the confection of the Holy Eucharist, that your patron the Cure of Ars remarked that if a priest knew what he was doing, he would die. Now that would be one heck of a first Mass, Oswaldo, but it might ruin the reception downstairs if you tried it. More seriously, Oswaldo, thank you for allowing the Holy Spirit to conform your life's story to that of our Lord's paschal mystery. May that same Spirit give you a passion for allowing Jesus to write his story within the time and circumstances of your life, and inspire you to conform your life to the mystery of the Lord's cross.
Finally, Fr. Oswaldo, I would be negligent if I didn't tell you at your first Mass that this priesthood that you accept with great joy, the cause of much rejoicing today, will cost you your life. There is no resurrection wtihout the cross, and no sending of the Spirit without our Lord first being lifted up. The priesthood if it is anything will be both better and harder than you expect. As much as you have changed in the past in order to reach this point, Fr. Oswaldo, and your story is truly inspiring, you will need to change even more within the priesthood than you have changed in the past. You must enter the priesthood with your eyes wide open, knowing that there are enemies who do not wish you to be a good and zealous and holy priest. You enter a Church and a priesthood that is indefectibly holy, but also in great and constant need of purification, pruning and conversion. You are asked to be a fearless instrument of the new evangelization in a time when the priesthood is marred by scandal, where the foundations of the family and society are being eroded at alarming rates, and where the fastest growing segments of religious landscape are agnostics and atheists. And then there is the more immediate concern of putting up with your first pastor, and surviving the weaknesses of your brother priests and of the local Church. This is not a job for the faint of heart. It will cost you your life. But thanks for giving your life today to us, and in gratitude it is a great honor for many of us to offer the fruit of this first Mass, and the pledge of our constant love and prayers, as you embark on the adventure of the priesthood.
In you, Fr. Oswaldo, we have seen the Risen Lord! This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it! Alleluia!
Solemnity of Pentecost B
26/27 May 2012
First Mass of Thanksgiving for newly ordained Fr. Oswaldo Sandoval
St. Agnes Catholic Church - Roeland Park, Kansas
Readings
Audio
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Alleluia!
We all recognize this refrain from the Mass of Easter Sunday. It is the psalm response for the entire Octave of Easter actually - this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Alleluia!
It is with the same joy of Easter Sunday that the Church ends the great season of Easter with the solemnity of Pentecost this weekend. But of course, if you're paying close attention, you know that what I just said is false. We do not gather on Pentecost Sunday with the same joy that we had on Easter morning; quite the contrary, we gather with a greater joy, a more profound joy, and more perfect joy, on the Solemnity of Pentecost. For Jesus said to those first apostles after His Resurrection - it is better for you that I go! Can I get an Amen?!? It is better for you that I go! For if I do not go, the Spirit, who will remind you of everything I did and said, and will send you to do greater things than I myself did, will not come!
If we take our Lord up on his word, we have no choice but to gather with an even greater and more perfect joy. In fact, how we gather at Pentecost tells us a lot about what we believe happened at Easter. For the Easter season has not been for us not a desperate hanging on to the memory of the Resurrection, not a careful attention to the last remaining ripple effect of the power of Easter morning. Quite the contrary, the Easter celebration of the Church, if it has been anything, has been a great crescendo of witnessing the power and truth and grace of the Resurrection redeeming the world from the inside out through the working of the Holy Spirit!
By the power of the same spirit, we in this very Easter season have been witnesses to greater things than those who were with our Lord during his Resurrection appearances. So Easter has not been a desperate remembering of how nice it would have been to have put our hand in Jesus' side like the apostle Thomas; no Easter has been a proclamation that we have seen greater things than this! For we have seen the Church filled with the Spirit at Pentecost do everything that Jesus did and say what He said. We have seen streams of living water flow out through the baptism of the old and young, through the incomparable newness and innocence of those receiving first communion. We have sen the Risen Lord active through his Holy Spirit in the celebration of confirmation, and that same Spirit stirred up through the graduation of many students. That same Spirit has created a new reality in the couples who have come for the sacrament of marriage.
If the women present at the tomb had reason to proclaim - We have seen the Risen Lord - so much more so do we who have lived through these 50 wonderful days of Easter. In the power of the Spirit given at Pentecost, we have seen greater things, and woe to us if we do not proclaim the Resurrection in an even more perfect and powerful way as we gather on this great Solemnity.
Oswaldo - Fr. Oswaldo - thank you for adding to our Easter joy, for giving us another chance to see the Risen Lord and the working of His Spirit, through your ordination this weekend. We have seen the Risen Lord today, Oswaldo - in you! as you have allowed yourself to be conformed into his living image through ordination. And thank you for the honor of preaching your first Mass of thanksgiving, an honor that I cherish and will never forget. You could have told me in advance that the Archbishop and his mother would be here, and although I now share with you the power to forgive sins, I haven't forgiven you for that quite yet, but even with the additional pressure, it is an honor nonetheless. You are a great man, Oswaldo, and I am happy to call you friend and brother, and I have been looking forward to sharing the priesthood with you.
You have the gifts of the Spirit in abundance, and the fruit of the Spirit in manifest in you. This was true even before you were ordained, which is why there are so many people surrounding you today excited that the Spirit that conformed you to Christ so that you may truly work in persona Christi capitis as His priest, will flow out from you in even more perfect and profound ways through your teaching and action as a priest. We expect great things from you, Oswaldo, not only because you have been given many gifts, but most of all because like Mary you have let the Holy Spirit overshadow you, and you have accepted the beautiful vocation to be a priest. Fr. Oswaldo, bring this same vulnerability and dependence on the Holy Spirit into your prayer, along with the humility, readiness and joy you have learned from our Blessed Mother into your priesthood, and our expectations for you will be as nothing compared to what God accomplishes in you, with you and through you.
Fr. Oswaldo, every vocation story is a miracle, but today we are particularly inspired by yours. Even in the Leaven the last two weeks, you have had a longer article and more pictures than the Archbishop who sits in choir in the sanctuary with you today - your story, and your ordination is a big deal! In fact, being the selfish guy that I am, I'm kind of tired of hearing about it. Just kidding. Thank you, Oswaldo, for letting us rejoice in your story, for in your story we see the protection of many angels, perhaps a miraculous intervention or two, the love of family and friends, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. How else could a young boy from El Salvador be here at this moment about to do what you are going to do, an act so amazing, the confection of the Holy Eucharist, that your patron the Cure of Ars remarked that if a priest knew what he was doing, he would die. Now that would be one heck of a first Mass, Oswaldo, but it might ruin the reception downstairs if you tried it. More seriously, Oswaldo, thank you for allowing the Holy Spirit to conform your life's story to that of our Lord's paschal mystery. May that same Spirit give you a passion for allowing Jesus to write his story within the time and circumstances of your life, and inspire you to conform your life to the mystery of the Lord's cross.
Finally, Fr. Oswaldo, I would be negligent if I didn't tell you at your first Mass that this priesthood that you accept with great joy, the cause of much rejoicing today, will cost you your life. There is no resurrection wtihout the cross, and no sending of the Spirit without our Lord first being lifted up. The priesthood if it is anything will be both better and harder than you expect. As much as you have changed in the past in order to reach this point, Fr. Oswaldo, and your story is truly inspiring, you will need to change even more within the priesthood than you have changed in the past. You must enter the priesthood with your eyes wide open, knowing that there are enemies who do not wish you to be a good and zealous and holy priest. You enter a Church and a priesthood that is indefectibly holy, but also in great and constant need of purification, pruning and conversion. You are asked to be a fearless instrument of the new evangelization in a time when the priesthood is marred by scandal, where the foundations of the family and society are being eroded at alarming rates, and where the fastest growing segments of religious landscape are agnostics and atheists. And then there is the more immediate concern of putting up with your first pastor, and surviving the weaknesses of your brother priests and of the local Church. This is not a job for the faint of heart. It will cost you your life. But thanks for giving your life today to us, and in gratitude it is a great honor for many of us to offer the fruit of this first Mass, and the pledge of our constant love and prayers, as you embark on the adventure of the priesthood.
In you, Fr. Oswaldo, we have seen the Risen Lord! This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it! Alleluia!
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