The second day of the annual fall meeting of the bishops of the United States had more parts than a dinosaur skeleton, not a mindless analogy mind you. When one asks 305 bishops (active and retired) to work on the plans, programs, priorities and new initiatives of the conference for the years 2013-2016, almost everyone has an opinion. And all of us had an opportunity to voice those opinions during the second half of the morning session when we broke into regional groupings (in our case the two dioceses of North Carolina, the one in South Carolina, the two in Georgia, and the seven in Florida). Every bishop in the region weighed in as to whether or not we should stick with the five priorities of the last five years, add “Religious Liberty” and the “New Evangelization” or reduce our expectations for the next planning cycle. First thing in the afternoon, the chair of the committee on Priorities and Plans and the Conference Secretary, Bishop George Murry of Youngstown, Ohio tried to assimilate all that had been heard at the morning regional meetings into a roadmap for his Committee to finish its work. Hats off to Bishop Murry for working with the clay putty of ideas the body of bishops had.

Also in the regional meetings we discussed how the Pontifical document Ex Corde Ecclesiae of ten years ago was being met by the Catholic colleges and universities in our region. There are five such institutions in four (arch)dioceses: Belmont Abbey in the Charlotte diocese, St. Leo University in our own, Ave Maria in the Venice diocese, and Barry University and the University of St. Thomas in the Archdiocese of Miami. I was able to report that as regards St. Leo, the president, Dr. Arthur Kirk, Jr. and I meet annually, our Vicar General, Monsignor Morris is both an alum and on the Board of Trustees, and that I have promised to return to Board membership if invited this year when I end my term on the Catholic Health Association Board.

For about an hour, our region knew when its dates for the Ad Limina visits to Rome were to be, but then word quickly came from Rome that the newly announced visit of Pope Benedict to Mexico and Cuba might delay us into late May or early June. Que sera sera!

Of great interest in the afternoon was a report by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington on the establishment of an ordinariate (think diocese even though there are some canonical differences) to accommodate those parishes and priests in the United States who wish to leave the Episcopal Church and become Roman Catholics while retaining their rites and ritual. Pope Benedict XVI opened up this possibility a few years ago and England and Wales already have such an ordinariate. Cardinal Wuerl said that the United States would have one as well by January 1, 2012 and a Catholic priest who has joined the Church through the Pastoral Provision would be or has been chosen to serve as the head of the ordinariate. If that priest, and this is most likely, is married then he cannot be ordained a bishop but he can administer the ordinariate. Two parishes, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and one in Washington, D.C. have come over under this papal provision so far. I do not expect any movement in the territory of our diocese at this time.

With that report, we concluded our public business, had a coffee break, and went into Executive Session, which will last until midday today (Wednesday). This afternoon I will be “following my star”, AMTRAK’S “Silver Star” and should arrive in Tampa’s Union Station around noon tomorrow. The “Star” does not move as does the “Meteor” and the trip will take twenty-two hours instead of nineteen on the way up. Plenty of time to prepare yet another blog entry as this weekend, Christ the King will be such a busy one for our local Church. All aboard!

+RNL

Darkness has now descended on northern Florida after an incredibly beautiful sunset and I am comfortable in my small room on AMTRAK’S “Silver Meteor” bound for the fall meeting of the bishops of the United States held in Baltimore and beginning tomorrow morning. If all goes well, which means God and AMTRAK working together, I will just arrive at the meeting room as the assembly begins. So tonight seems like a good night to post some unrelated and unconnected thoughts.

POPE BENEDICT XVI on Wednesday at the General Audience seemed to me to be quite animated and well. I had been reading of speculation about his health for several weeks and when he was an almost unprecedented twenty minutes late arriving in St. Peter’s square for the audience (very un-German like) I wondered, but once there, save walking more slowly (which I find myself doing), he seemed little different in bearing than when I last met him five plus years ago. We reminisced for about a minute and the fact that he still recognized me was encouraging also. From the beginning of his papacy, he has set a pace for himself consistent with his age and wisely has not tried to imitate his predecessor in having every meal with guests, forty people for daily Mass and individual opportunities for pictures at the drop of a hat. He should not be faulted for that and I suspect we will never again see the likes of a public pope like Blessed John Paul II.

THERE ARE ONLY THIRTEEN MORE DAYS LEFT for “Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again.” The new translation will be placed into use in our parishes, schools and missions on Saturday night, November 26^th, the Vigil Masses for the First Sunday of October. All of will have to adjust but adjust we will. It may take some time to do so but it will be the new translation of very familiar prayers. I ask all of our good people to be patient with their bishop and priests for some time to come. Two weeks ago today, when offering Sunday Mass at the Church of the Primacy of Peter along the Sea of Galilee, the Franciscans in charge of the church had only the new English translation with which to work. I found praying the Eucharistic prayer to be challenging and difficult. In fact, I would say that I did not pray it as I would the translations with which we are so familiar as much as reading it. The wording is challenging, new in many instances, and the temptation to slip back into the more familiar when I took my eyes off the text was present and palpable. Only the “Our Father” has been spared change, everything else will require you and I and our priests for some time to pay attention to the printed word. And on both of our parts, in the beginning, we are going to “slip” from time to time. Please don’t write me with complaints about priests and deacons “refusing to use the new translation” when all that is happening is a simple mistake in these early months. It is going to take some time. Perhaps at the end of a year if you wish to share with me your thoughts about the changes, feel free to do so and I will respond by mail but give yourselves and us some time to make the change. I wish to thank our priests, deacons, and lay leadership who have prepared the diocese for this moment and you for being open to see how it goes. I have said many times this year and here will repeat for the last time, the changes will be far harder and more challenging on we priests than on anyone else. Soon perhaps we will be able to stop reading and resume praying when we commit to memory the new translation.

THE BALTIMORE MEETING this year going into it has a thin agenda – so thin I was able to read all the action items between the Orlando AMTRAK station and the Winter Park AMTRAK station. I do not see anything fractious or contentious to be discussed in public session but your bishops like nature abhor a vacuum and who knows? Unless there are more substantive issues, which arise in executive session (I have not seen the agenda), I wondered if I should even go to the time and expense of travelling to Baltimore. There are the usual elections plus elections of delegates to next year’s Rome Synod on the “new evangelization,” several small liturgical matters like the approval of some Mass texts for new saints and one for Blessed Pope John Paul II, and the annual approval of the budget and plans and programs for the Conference. Since its reorganization about five years ago, there has been a decided decline in matters brought before the body of bishops for debate and vote, which I think, was one of the purposes for the reorganization in the first place. I never thought twenty to twenty-five years ago that if a bishop I would want to miss a general meeting or leave early, but now I find myself guilty on both counts.

FINALLY, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, JOE PATERNO and the sad news that children, minors, had been violated in the worst ways by a member of the coaching staff and while authorities knew of it, nothing was done brings back the worst of memory recall about our own challenges in this regard for the past decade. Since it all happened in 2002 and our dark night of the soul began in 2001 one would think that in light of our poor performance, every other organization would have learned and gained from our calamitous situation. As a Church in the United States and as a worldwide Church, we are far from “out of the woods” on this matter but we are working on it. Two things are foremost in my mind: anyone who has reasonably certain knowledge that an employee of the church, ordained, professed or employed is engaging in actions which even suggest inappropriate behavior need to report it to the civil authorities immediately, and second, when notified, those of us responsible for the governance of the Church must act as we promised we would in Dallas and have reaffirmed repeatedly. Words without actions spell further disaster.

IN THIS REGARD, the Diocese of St. Petersburg has been found to be in full compliance with the requirements of the Dallas Charter by Stonebridge Associates who have been retained by the United States Conference of Bishops to conduct annual audits. They made several recommendations, which will be implemented like posting in public places the phone numbers of where people should call and report if they sincerely suspect sexual misconduct with a minor to be present. Most of our parishes, schools and institutions have done this but apparently some have not. There was also a concern about one parish where it was not clear that all parents and children had been given the instructions about creating and maintaining a safe environment. I wish to thank everyone in the diocese from pastors to lawn care personnel for being attentive to the needs of insuring a strong safe environment. But in the end, like Penn State, it all depends in the end on me to make the right decisions with the help of a truly independent diocesan Review Board, Victims Assistance Coordinator and alert people.

The “Silver Meteor” has just landed in Savannah and it is time for me to go to dinner in the diner and nothing could be finer. Prayers for all of you this week and please keep me in your prayers as well.

+RNL

The apostle to the gentiles

“And so we came to Rome. The believers there had heard that we were coming, and they travelled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him. Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. . .and they came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.” [Acts28:16-17,23]

Paul had interrupted his journey with some time spent on the island of Malta prior to boarding a ship, which would ultimately land near the present Italian city of Naples. Travelling with Luke overland to Rome, they found pockets of Christians. Excitedly they sent word on to Rome that Paul had finally arrived and was on his way to the capital city. It is widely believed that many of the Christians from Rome travelled out to the Appian Way to greet him upon his arrival. Still under Roman guard, one needs to imagine though that after all he had been through since his conversion, he was finally being welcomed by Christians, believers. Ten years after expressing a desire to come to Rome he had finally arrived.

As we have seen in other places, Paul started with the members of the Jewish community in Rome and began to preach at the synagogue. Fortunately for him, the anger, antagonism, and opposition which marked the end of his preaching in Jerusalem and every place in between was not initially present and he came to the Roman Jews without any advance prejudice having been sent ahead. They listened but it did not take them long not to like what they heard, especially the prospect of a new religious movement following a so-called “Messiah.”

Perhaps he won a few converts from that community but history had a way of repeating itself and before long there were few left to listen to Paul. Once again his message turned to the gentiles who offered more hope for conversion and more openness to the message. Luke in Acts tells us that Paul remained in his own rented house in Rome for two full years. Under arrest this whole time and mostly in chains but with certain liberties, there is no record of any trial or punishment meted out on Paul while early in Rome. Like the energizer bunny, he just kept on preaching Jesus Christ. Paul is growing older, more weary, and knowing that the end is near. Nero has ascended the Roman throne, not the most balanced person in Roman history and seems initially to have had little to no interest in the case of Paul. Perhaps too those from Jerusalem did not pursue bringing the case once Paul was “out of sight and out of mind” there. Whatever, there was a long period of waiting for the proverbial shoe, or more accurately sword to drop.

To get some idea of Paul’s mind during this period in his life, one should read his second letter to Timothy, which is a personal reflection on his emotions, mind and heart during this period of his life. I shall not repeat it here as it is a brief letter and you can read it in its entirety in minutes. Conscious of the growing division between Jews and Gentiles which Christianity is bringing and aware that his own credibility with the Jews of Rome is suspect, it is thought that Paul invited someone else to write the Letter to the Hebrews, often attributed to him as actual author but believed unlikely by most scripture scholars. That is not to discount, however, that Paul may likely have been in the background saying to the actual author, “no, write this!”

Sometime in the third year, Paul’s best friend and “Johnny-on-the-spot” every time the great apostle got depressed and desperate, Timothy, comes to Rome and spends time with his mentor, buoying his spirits. Other friends and converts from his missionary stops also come to Rome and that joy can be seen in his writings in Philippians. Luke dies before Paul so our historian is no longer any help on Paul’s final years.

Paul wanted to die for his Lord just as his Lord had died for him and for us. He hoped for a trial before the Roman authorities and it seems he may have gotten his wish and before Nero to boot. Sometime in 63 or 64AD Paul’s trial was held. Death was the verdict and punishment but it could not be a death like that of Jesus, crucifixion, because Paul was a Roman citizen and they by law were not crucified. We believe that Paul was led outside of the city where he was beheaded. Thirty years after being knocked off his horse at the gate to Damascus, Paul entered eternal life outside of Rome.

Peter would suffer the same death sentence at the hands of Nero as Paul but as a Jew he would be crucified, upside down and buried in a communal pit on the Vatican hill outside of Rome. The charge given to Peter along the Sea of Galilee to “feed my lambs. . .feed my sheep” gave to the “prince of the apostles” the position of heading the Church and other than the question of baptism versus circumcision which led to and was settled by the Council of Jerusalem in 64AD, there is no evidence anywhere to suggest that Paul did anything other than respect Peter’s role. There is no evidence in Acts or the Pauline writings or in the writings of the early Church fathers to indicate any antagonism or difficulties between these two giants of the early church and of the faith.

After offering Mass this morning in St. Peter’s Basilica at the new altar of Blessed John Paul II,  our remaining pilgrims and I attended the audience outside St. Peter’s with the successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI . Thus concludes our journey in the footsteps of Peter and Paul, from Galilee to Rhodes to Ephesus to Corinth to Rome. I am grateful for the gracious comments of those who have been following along with us and to the women and men who made this journey with me. Tomorrow some reflections of my brief time with Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday. When one has the opportunity that was ours for the past few weeks, scripture takes on new meaning and can be heard and understood in a different light at times. Monsignor Stephen Bosso, formerly Rector and professor of Sacred Scripture at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, now pastor of St. Rose of Lima parish in Milton, Florida, was a great gift accompanying us and I learned an awful lot from his lectures and homilies. I am planning one final trip to the Holy Land before I leave and I know I will be returning to Rome, most likely in the Spring with the bishops of our region. At that time, every bishop must visit and offer Mass at St. Peter’s and again at St. Paul’s Outside of the Walls. I shall miss those who shared this experience with me.

A picture of our Holy Father taken on Wednesday by one of our pilgrims.

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Athens, named for the Goddess of Wisdom in an image from Google images

Today I leave for Athens, Greece (I hope, providing the general strikes and unrest take a break) there over the week-end. I will be joined by 131 other people, some relatives including my brother Jim, some close and long-time friends from Washington, St. Louis and here, and some totally new soon-to-be-friends who were interested in taking this pilgrimage with me to many of the places once graced by the presence of Jesus and his mother, Mary, but also St. Peter and St. Paul. At one time there were 182 people signed up for the trip but the “Arab Spring” and subsequent unrest in Egypt caused some to have second thoughts and drop out. I understand fully their concern, but I leave with little concern for our personal safety. We shall be visiting in this order; Corinth and Athens, Greece; Alexandria in Egypt with most of the people spending the day in Cairo; Israel for three days; Rhodes, Greece, Ephesus and finally Rome. Our method of conveyance from one country to another will be the flagship of the Holland America Line, the MS Rotterdam which we board on Tuesday next for twelve nights.

I was going to take these days off from writing this blog, but I have had second thoughts and will be filing with pictures of our group only at the holy places or places once visited by the Lord and the two great Apostles. There will be an audience on November 9th with the [present successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI] and that will conclude our modern journey to some of the places once inhabited, at least for a time, by the apostles and the mother of Jesus (Nazareth, Bethlehem and Ephesus). If you could not come with us on this journey, I hope you enjoy my accounts. If they are not your usual Bishop Lynch “cup of tea”, tune me in again on November 11th just before the Fall meeting of the bishops of the United States in Baltimore.

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This evening I had an opportunity to celebrate Mass with a group of young people and their chaperones who are leaving tomorrow for World Youth Day next week in Spain. They were accompanied tonight by their parents and some friends and the liturgy was lovely and the singing spirited. I had an opportunity to reflect with them on the relatively short history (short in Church history anyway) of World Youth Days, an inspiration of Blessed Pope John Paul II in the early eighties and my own involvement as General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops when an inquiry was made about whether or not the bishops of the United States would be willing to host WYD in 1993. It gave me an opportunity to recall energy and spirit of those wonderful days in Denver and the witness of 650,000 young people gathered on Saturday night for the Vigil with the Pope and then the Mass the next morning. It remains the last World Youth Day I have been able to attend but the memory lingers quite strong.

Bound tomorrow and this week-end for Madrid and World Youth Day, the pilgrims were given scarfs made for them by the Salesian Sisters to wipe the perspiration away.

Pope Benedict XVI will join the youth gathered next week, lead them in prayer, bless them and encourage them to continue to live the lives which Christ seeks of all of us. Prior to his arrival there will be catechesis sessions in all the major languages for the youth, concerts, eucharistic adoration and prayer, many Eucharistic liturgies, and lots of joy and enthusiasm for the faith. It is highly unlikely the the Prado, the great art museum of Spain housing an incredible collection of El Greco’s, Murillo’s and Velasquez will set new attendance records during these days but Madrid will rock. Which leads me to the title for this blog entry.

Midwesterners know that earthquakes are not only likely in California and on the West Coast, but in the great midwest also. As a matter of fact, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas sit right on top of a plate called the “new Madrid fault” and are candidates for an earthquake or two. “Madrid” is pronounced slightly differently than the capital city of Spain but the earth under some of our midwestern states has already moved in such a way that small earthquakes have recently been felt, recorded, and augur more serious movement for the future.

Well, old Madrid, the capital of Spain will also rock this week as nearly a million young people descend upon it for World Youth Day 2011. The youth will bring their brand of music and Christian rock and they will sing, dance, pray, sway giving new life to the old Catholic wineskins of Catholic Spain. I am told that there are about 190 youth and a good number of adult chaperones leaving now for Spain from the diocese including several of our priests and religious sisters. A record 60,000 youth from the U.S. have signed up to attend and paid their registration fee which I am led to believe is the largest number of any WYD held outside the North American continent. And all the energy, the movement of the Spirit, the joy and enthusiasm remains the “fault” of our late Pope whose idea convening the young people of the world originally was. Travel safely and return to us with an even deeper commitment to your faith, dear young people.

+RNL

After a very long week-end which included four confirmations in two days, one in Citrus county, one in Hernando country, and two in Pinellas county, I returned home last night (Sunday) and before going to bed was watching the recording of the Beatification ceremony of Blessed John Paul II when my IPhone signaled a major breaking news story. Placing the Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on hold, I turned on NBC and first heard that the President of the United States had asked for air time to speak to the nation about a major issue of national security at 1030pm. Like most of you, I waited and watched and then about 1045pm heard that the network could confirm that the President was about to announce the death of Osama Bin Laden and that our soldiers were in possession of his dead body. An enormous sense of relief swept over me. I instinctively thought of the late Pope and what he might have thought were he alive.

When in 2001, President Bush declared war on terrorism and especially on Al Qaeda, the Holy Father noted that the action could be morally justifiable as an act of self-defense and a response to an unprovoked attack on innocent civilians. For the Pope and the Holy See to acknowledge that the criteria for a just war could be met in this action was an unusual moment in modern history. It was no surprise to many when the intelligence community throughout the world posited that the same Al Qaeda had targeted the Holy Father himself for assassination. Later Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict would raise serious questions about the expansion of the Afghanistan initiative.

No one takes pleasure in the violent death of another but a sense of justice being served, peace possibly being advanced, one less terrorist to manage more attacks on civilian targets, is no sin. I think the Lord would understand. Not knowing all the details at this writing  I think most citizens of the United States are relieved as I am that this  mastermind of the deaths of thousands was brought to justice. We have lost 45,000+ of our young women and men in the ten years plus since 9/11 in Iraq and Afghanistan, a high price to pay. Just this week-end, it was revealed that a young Marine from Plant City was the latest to die in Afghanistan serving his country. Their families must surely be experiencing some measure of comfort this morning though the pain of their loss will long outlive the relief of last night’s news.

We all need to continue to pray for peace in our world. Our world is a complicated place and it needs more leaders like Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict to help us navigate the path to true peace which is never war. For the moment, I shall simply ponder my personal feeling of relief at this stunning news.

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Who can forget the chants from the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in and around St. Peter’s square six years ago for the funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II, “santo subito” roughly translated “make him a saint and quick.” On Sunday next the penultimate step will be taken, once again in St. Peter’s Square, when his long-time and trusted assistant, now his successor, Pope Benedict XVI raises John Paul II to the rank of “blessed” – the final and what will surely be brief stop on the path to sainthood. Each day this week I would like to share with some of my memories of my personal interaction with our late Holy Father.

My first encounter with the newly elected Pope John Paul II came in July of 1979 in the same St. Peter’s Square in Rome when I was introduced to him as the US priest who would organize his just announced first trip to the United States at the invitation of both the United Nations and President Carter. “I will pray for you,” he said and that was it – it said it all. He had seven months prior completed his first pastoral journey outside of Rome to Mexico and the Bahamas as well as his first return trip to his native Poland. Now he had announced a brief visit attached to a stop first in Ireland and then an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York and I travelled to Rome to measure the magnitude of the man who would soon be coming to our shores.

Ordained only one year at the time and released by my Archbishop to the service of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops for a period of four months which was all we had from announcement of the visit to its completion, I met my Vatican counterpart, the late Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus and the pope on the same day. The latter was easier on me than the former. During the coming months I would sit in meetings and occasionally say a Vatican prompted “no” to the Carter White House (the President and Mrs. Carter wanted a private luncheon for the Pope at the White House), Cardinal Cody and “Lady Jane Byrne” who was the Mayor of Chicago and practically wanted tickets for Holy Communion for a lot of Chicago political bosses in return for preparing streets, providing personal police protection, and readying Grant Park for the Mass. She and her Cardinal were not getting along.

Two trips in three months from the U.S. to the Vatican and the program was complete and agreed to and in a dense fog and rainy day in Boston, Aer Lingus 747 named “Saint Patrick” arrived right on time to begin an intense six day visit.

Almost everybody was on edge, save the Holy Father. He did what he was told when told and was easy to care for, except for that built in radar that found a child to kiss at Madison Square Garden, a wheel chair person to embrace at Lincoln Park in Chicago when leaving Marine One, the Presidential helicopter lent to him by President Carter for the visit, or spending more time playing with the college students at Catholic University who would endlessly chant “John Paul II, we love you” to which when he heard enough he would respond “John Paul II loves you too.” I thought it would never end.

My most profound memories in a kaleidoscope of challenges and events of the Pope himself, however, was his prayerfulness. On the first morning Archbishop Marcinkus and I had just finished saying Mass at 430am in the former Archbishop’s Residence in Boston when down the stairs and wearing his white cassock like a night robe came the Pope for first coffee and then a long hour of prayer in the chapel. Heavy, incessant pouring rain did not bother his meditation while saying Mass on Boston Common and no matter how late we completed the day’s program and got him home for the night for rest, he would dart to the chapel to be left alone with the Lord for final prayer.

When not giving a talk or kissing babies or blessing the physically challenged, out would come the Rosary or his Divine Office. He was young, vigorous then, deeply spiritual which he remained till his death, with more energy than I or anyone else in his travelling retinue. I knew when he walked into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, minutes after his arrival from Ireland, and the priests stood on the pews shouting for joy and clapping their hands incessantly that I was about to participate in an introduction of an extraordinary person to my country.

DesMoines was added by +Marcinkus and myself when on the phone we concluded that there was more to the US than great cities and urban areas. True a farmer from neighboring Kansas named Joe Hayes had written to me to ask the Pope to come to America’s heartland for even just a few hours but it was the Archbishop who after a long conversation with me went upstairs to the third floor of the papal apartments and made the case for DesMoines and the Mass at Living History Farms. The Holy Father on the way to Chicago that afternoon uncharacteristically thanked +Marcinkus for including the stop.

A week in the presence of such holiness was I thought the experience of a lifetime and there was a frog in my throat when the Pope climbed the massive steps of the TWA 747 which I had chartered and paid for to return to Rome. He was amazing, I thought. What an incredible gift God had provided to His Church in the person of this successor of St. Peter and what a credible, living witness to the Gospel and to the work of evangelization. “Good night and thank you, Holy Father,” were my final parting words (earlier in the day at the Apostolic Nunciature speaking for the Secret Service, the six diocesan coordinators and my staff I had said to him, “It has been a great honor, Holy Father, to have had you among us and all of us hope you will come again, but not too soon as we are tired.”) He smiled broadly and knowingly that his energy level exceeded our own, and I came down the steps to the tarmac saying that would be it for the Pope and me. Wrong. More tomorrow.

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One of my unfulfilled hopes is to some day before meeting the Lord preach the “seven last words” on Good Friday someplace. It will probably await my retirement if it ever happens at all. It would require abundant research, prayerful thought and a discipline which is not usually found in my preaching. Part of the reason which I would like to do this is because I have long been fascinated by the words and phrases attributed to the Lord in his final hours. I know they mean far more than their simple literal meaning. This year, again with the help of Pope Benedict XVI’s superb book on Holy Week, things which I have often played with in my mind take on a richer and deeper meaning and at least today have given me the springboard to reflect on one example of those last words, “I Thirst.” What follows is my homily for Good Friday 2011 at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle. Lent comes to an end at the conclusion of the liturgy today. I hope it was a truly blessed journey for you.

+RNL

HOMILY FOR GOOD FRIDAY 2011

I THIRST

“I thirst” Christ cries from the cross before breathing his last. The torture and terror of the day has drained his body of almost all of its strength, his breath is badly labored, blood and water are flowing from the wounds of his hands and side, the pain must have been excruciating and many of us have had the personal experience either of dehydration or an unquenchable thirst.  Christ’s cry for something to help him in his final moments is so very human, so very understandable, and seemingly so very simple.

Pope Benedict XVI in his new book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week (pages 217-219) opens up a meaning of these two words far beyond their simplicity. The Romans were beastly cruel but even they offered to those who were to be crucified prior to standing them upright a drink which would reduce the pain and suffering somewhat, an anesthetic of sorts. Jesus had refused, wishing no compromise with the plan of the Father, which through his death would redeem all of humankind of its sins and failings. He sought no relief for Himself to bring relief to others.

In the heat of the midday sun, the response of those near him, perhaps even his executioners, was to offer him a “poor man’s wine”, almost vinegar. The Holy Father points out in his book that in making this request Christ and in recording it John are recalling the text of Psalm 69 “for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

The Pope adds that there is to be found in those two words, “I Thirst” also a reference to the great prophet Isaiah’s parable of the vine which envisions Israel as a vast vineyard planted lovingly, given a special place where its product might produce the finest of wine and over which loving care has been taken. “He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” [Is 5:2] From his summit on the altar of the cross, Jesus looked out at the vineyard he had planted for three years and found no harvest, no wine but vinegar, no justice and no apparent love beyond that which hung on the cross.

Pope Benedict once again for a final time on these last words; “…God’s suffering over his people in a way that far transcends the historical moment, so too the scene at the cross far transcends the hour of Jesus’ death. It is not only Israel, but the Church, it is we ourselves who repeatedly respond to God’s bountiful love with vinegar – with a sour heart that is unable to perceive God’s love. “I thirst”: this cry of Jesus is directed to every one of us.” [p.218-219].

So my dear brothers and sisters, today as then Jesus is crying out to us to quench his thirst for souls, his desire for believers who embrace him and his message, who wish to live a life of love and sacrifice. He would have died in vain and even today his suffering might be denied relevancy if all we can offer him is vinegar, not our best but our cheapest or easiest,

It is not the Roman centurions sent to guard him and assure and record his death that he gazes at this afternoon; it is not his loving, heart pierced mother or his beloved friend John that he sees, it is us. He thirsts for us, for our hearts, for our love, for our fidelity, for our willingness to make sacrifices for our love of him and our neighbor.

In so many ways Israel failed him. How about us? Is it all about us and little about Him?

There is much that he would see good in our life as Church today. We do care for the poor, we do act justly and love constantly as the prophet Micah suggests, but do we walk humbly before the Lord? Or perhaps more apropos to this moment are we sitting here, listening indeed but not internalizing the events, which for far too many are merely historical, and not of importance to this moment. He thirsts for you and I and we are unable to satisfy that thirst by simply recalling history. We must make the most of every moment given us in this life to spread and share his love – with joy. The parents who sacrifice for the education of their children give him more than vinegar to quench his thirst. The parish or people who work for justice in our world and community give him more than vinegar to quench his thirst. The couple that despite the occasional challenges of married life together renew their love for each other daily and remain faithful give him more than vinegar. The priest or religious who carry some of the crosses of always being on call to serve God’s people quench his thirst and give him more than vinegar. The teenager who says no to drugs, sex outside of marriage, use of alcohol quench his thirst and give him more than vinegar,

So those words, so seemingly simple, cry out to each of us today to examine our lives and check our response to Christ’s thirst born of his incredible suffering on the cross. They make his passion real once again in our lives. They make us more than bystanders who have gathered to hear once again a good story, reverence a cross, approach the Body of Christ automatically without thinking of the consequences, for Him and for us, of his sacrifice.

If Good Friday is truly to be “good” then we offer him a response to His thirst, which says, “I get it, Jesus.” I am yours and you are mine.