Diocese of Salt Lake City Mass of Installation Homily Cathedral of the Madeleine

Editor’s note: Bishop John C. Wester delivered the following homily on the occasion of his installation as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City March 14, 2007, in the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

Thanks be to God who has gathered us together today in this beautiful Cathedral of the Madeleine to celebrate this moment in the history of our local Church! To each of you present here now and to all who make up this wonderful Church of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, I express my deepest gratitude for your prayers, support, enthusiasm and kindness. I am also mindful and appreciative of those who cannot be with us today but do join us in prayer.

So much has happened in the last few months to bring us together today, to bring us to this moment in time. I will never forget last January 8th as I got off the plane and was immediately struck by the natural beauty that surrounds this spectacular city. The Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountain Ranges really impressed me with their magnificent beauty. Of course, since it was early January, I was also impressed with the weather! People kept telling me not to worry – it’s going to get up to 32°F today! I told them that where I am coming from it gets down to 32°F! While the weather may have been cold I soon realized that the people of Utah are certainly warm! I will never forget the wonderful reception I received then and now and I am deeply grateful. I will also never forget the first time I stepped into this gorgeous cathedral! I had heard how beautiful it is but I had no idea it is this beautiful. I was particularly struck by these stained glass windows, especially the one to my left: Jesus meeting Mary Magdalene in the garden on Easter morning. What first caught my eye was the shovel in Christ’s hand. Of course, I realized! Mary first thought that the risen Christ was the gardener! I am so taken with this meeting between Mary and the risen Lord that I would like to reflect on its meaning for you and me during this homily.

I believe that the meeting of Christ and Mary as depicted in this stained glass is one of the most tender moments recorded in the Gospels. Mary encounters the risen Christ and hears Him speak her name: Mary. At first blush, this may not seem all that extraordinary. And yet, we must remember that this Mary is the same well-known sinner who was condemned my many in her community. In addition, it was not common for women to be addressed in public. Actually, the first two times Mary is addressed in today’s Gospel, she is simply referred to as "woman." But when Jesus and Mary are face to face, the risen Christ calls her by name. This is a story of naming and it underscores the importance of a name.

During this homily, I will be reflecting on the significant meeting between the risen Christ and St. Mary Magdalene soon after the Resurrection. This encounter leads us to contemplate some very important aspects of Church, themes that weave their way through this installation liturgy.

Parents really prioritize the naming of their children. We all feel bad if we forget someone’s name. Nicknames give us the sense of closeness and even intimacy. When someone refers to my mother as "Sis", we all know this is a person who has known Mom for years and is probably a family member or close friend. If the readings today are any clue, then God certainly makes a big deal out of a name as well!

Our first reading today underscores just how important a name is. Moses asked specifically for God’s name because for Semitic people, a name is critically important. It implies real existence. Something becomes real once its name is known. Furthermore, the name identifies the function and very being of the thing or person. God reveals Himself as "I am", that is, as "I shall be there for you as who I am, so shall I be there for you." God’s name gives us insight into His function, indeed His very being. He causes us to be and enters into our lives as an active participant. Since to know a name was to be able to exercise influence over a person, we see how vulnerable God allows Himself to become as He expresses His love for Moses and His people. By revealing His name, God is revealing His desire to be intimate with His people.

With all that a name implies – vulnerability, intimacy, affirmation and love – Jesus, just raised from the dead, breathes the name, "Mary." It reminds us of yet another garden at the beginning of time when the breath of God, the Spirit of God, hovered over the waters and created life. In this garden of the Resurrection, Christ’s breath may have been visible in the cool morning air as he breathed new life into a distraught Mary, just as he had given her new life earlier in forgiving her sins. What must this have been like for Mary? Imagine a patient waking from an operation and hearing the doctor say, "You’re going to be fine." Or, a parent getting a call from the police, "We’ve found your child and she is OK." Or, a high school senior opening the mailbox to find her name on a college acceptance letter. Just as parents are asked at baptism, "What name do you give your child?" Mary is given her name as if for the first time by the Lord of Life. Mary’s whole being is transformed by Jesus as she realizes that there is no more beautiful sound than to hear your name spoken in love, especially by one whom you have also come to love. Father Ron Rolheiser speaks eloquently about the question posed by Jesus at the beginning of John’s Gospel: "What are you looking for?" What the disciples are looking for, John explains throughout his Gospel, is to hear their name spoken in love by God. And the answer comes from the lips of Jesus as he says, "Mary." Her ears heard what we all long to hear.

When Christ called Mary by name, he once again gave her new life. Just as God’s own name signifies the transmission of life, so does Christ pronouncing Mary’s name affirm her as a person and renew her graced relationship with the Messiah.

Archbishop Quinn, in his beautiful homily at Bishop Calvo’s ordination and installation in Reno, remarked that friends of Jesus abound in John’s Gospel. We know that in this Gospel, friendship is the primary mark of discipleship. Mary’s friendship with the Lord is a mark of her discipleship and a result of her response to Christ who called her by name. But what does this discipleship mean in the Gospel of John? It means that Mary is compelled to follow the example of Christ who first called her friend. John’s Gospel shows us that Jesus, the friend, puts on his apron, what may be called the first liturgical vestment, and washes the feet of the disciples. Friendship is marked by service, by giving of ourselves to others in selflessness and in imitation of the one who first loved us. This friendship is crowned by the sacrificing of our very lives to others, as Christ did on the cross. Friends do not shrink from this sacrifice, this pain. They embrace it. As Rainer Maria Rilke puts it in his tenth elegy, "How we squander our hours of pain. How we gaze beyond them into the bitter duration to see if they have an end. Though they are really our winter-enduring foliage, our dark evergreen, one season in our inner year… foundation and soil and home."

If Christ’s calling Mary by name leads to friendship, then it also leads to unity: unity with the risen Lord and unity with the other disciples. Mary "went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord.’" Throughout the post Resurrection accounts, we see disciples giving witness to each other of what they have seen and heard. The disciples reflect the risen Christ’s own preoccupation with gathering together, building up the community and calling everyone together around their Lord and Master. As the disciples draw ever closer to Christ, they draw ever closer to one another. Indeed, it is deeply significant that Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene share a deep friendship of solidarity as they stand together and support each other at the foot of the cross. Through the saving action of Christ, Mary Magdalene is seen as a worthy friend of the spotless one, the Mother of God. Such a friendship can only be born through grace.

This friendship and unity is the very subject of our second reading today. John tells us so eloquently in his first letter that it is God’s love that generates our own love: love of God and of each other. This is not our invention, but God’s. As we come face to face with God’s love for us, God creates in us the ability to love others and then to realize that since God is love, when we love we must be of God himself. Our own love, then, created in God’s very image, becomes outgoing, generative and creative. For us to love each other and be united with each other, as evidenced in the life of Mary Magdalene, is to live the answer to Christ’s prayer as he asked the Father that we may be one as He is one with the Father.

Because Mary is called by Christ, she becomes his friend, a key mark of the disciple. As friend of Christ, Mary is called into greater union with him and with her fellow disciples. But this union does not stop with the Church. Mary Magdalene reminds us that Jesus also calls us to bring the good news of his Resurrection to everyone.

But there is more! Throughout John’s Gospel the process of faith, the process of falling in love with Christ, involves the wider community. Mary Magdalene is obeying the law of love that by its very nature is self-disclosing and directed to all, without prejudice or bias. Her process of faith mirrors that of the Samaritan woman at the well who had to talk to her townsfolk before she came to full faith in Jesus. It is also like that of the man born blind who "reported" and "proclaimed" the healing of Christ four different times before he finally came to his own profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Just as the name of Yahweh causes life and sustains life, we, who are created in God’s image, are also called to bring new life by virtue of Christ calling us by name at Baptism. As we drink from these life-giving waters, we are also commissioned to proclaim the love of God to all, in the process of building up our faith.

This little reflection on the meeting of the Risen Christ and Mary Magdalene in the garden gives us an insight into what it means to be Church and it gives us an insight into what we are about today. That same risen Christ is with us now, in this Church of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, calling us by name, inviting us to be "friend," gathering us as a community and commissioning us to proclaim the good news of His Resurrection to the world: in short, giving us life as Church.

You may say, "Well, yes, but we thought we were here for your installation as our ninth bishop." That’s true, of course! But I have news for you! You’re on candid camera! Actually, it’s called live streaming. I hope that you can see yourselves as very active participants in this liturgy today and beyond! You are participants not simply because you are "in the picture" but because this installation is for you, about you and with you. Let me explain.

Our Holy Father has indeed appointed me as your bishop. In doing this, he is fulfilling his sacred responsibility to shepherd the universal Church in fidelity to his role as the Vicar for Christ on earth. He has commissioned me, so to speak, as your shepherd and pastor, calling me to lead you on the path of holiness as the Church of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. This is the part that makes me loose sleep at night – it is an awesome responsibility! You are wonderful people and I want to do my best to serve you as your bishop. So, you are connected to this ceremony by association as the ones I am to serve. But there is more. You are also connected to this ceremony because my appointment means that I am to hear Christ calling my name through you, through this local Church. I am to deepen in my friendship with Christ through you. I am to be part of the living body of the Church specifically through you and I am to reach out to others through you. St. Augustine said, "What I am for you terrifies me; what I am with you consoles me. For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian." (St. Augustine, Sermon 340.1). Therefore, even as I am called to be your servant leader, I am also called to walk with you on my own path to holiness. What does this mean for me as your bishop? What does it mean for you as the people of God here in Utah? What does it mean, then, for us?

We are here today to celebrate my installation as your ninth bishop. However, each and every one of you is intimately involved with this installation. Not just because I have been appointed to serve you but also because your relationship with me is absolutely essential if I am to be an effective pastor in your midst. Indeed, you become instruments through which I will hear Christ calling my name, a call to personal holiness through my service of this local Church.

The eminent theologian, Jesuit Father Karl Rahner, wrote about what it means to offer effective leadership in the Church. He said, "The first duty of the (bishop) is to lead people to the direct experience of God and to surrender and entrust themselves to him unconditionally." I believe that one of my first duties as bishop is to assist you in hearing Christ call your name even as he calls us communally as a Church. It is my prayer that I will be given the grace to allow Christ’s voice to be heard in my words and in my actions, in my decisions and in my concern for each and every one of you. At the same time, I will strive to hear Christ calling me by name through you.

When I was a newly ordained priest, I used to bring Holy Communion to a particular rest home in San Rafael. One Sunday, I met a gentleman who was remarking how marvelous it was that his mother was always waiting for him every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. She was forgetful and he was amazed that she never forgot the day and time of his visits. A nurse friend later told me that in fact, his mother was there every morning at 9 a.m., waiting for him to visit. To me, that mother is an example of the kind of devotion, attention and centeredness that Christ asks of me in listening to you and discerning Christ’s voice in you. In Liturgies grand and small, meetings, conferences, retreats, Priest Council gatherings, casual conversations, planning sessions and so much more, I am challenged to hear Christ speaking to me as I serve you as bishop and work out my own call to holiness.

As your bishop, I hope to draw you further into friendship with Christ and all that means for His disciples. I will no doubt ask you to keep your apron handy as you find opportunities to wash the feet of your fellow disciples. At the same time, I am here to ask for your friendship, a friendship that will enhance my closeness to the Lord. I feel a little bit like one of my nephews who, when a child, would go out front, meet a new kid on the block and say, "Hi! My name’s Robert. Do you want to be my friend?" If I am to be a faithful disciple, I need to deepen in my friendship with Christ and I need your friendship to do that. I am pleased to see so many of my friends here today from the Archdiocese of San Francisco and beyond. Your friendship will always be a source of ongoing support, and a gift in my life. Now, I am called to make new friends with you, the priests (my closest collaborators), the women and men religious, deacons, seminarians and faithful of the Catholic Church in Utah. I am also called to develop rich new friendships with my brothers and sisters in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as with so many others throughout the state. Through these friendships, we will grow together in our relationship with the Lord through our mutual care, concern and compassion.

I look forward to sharing meals with you, to visiting our parishes, pre-schools, elementary, middle and high schools, religious education schools, offices, rectories and so much more. I know that I will be on the road a lot as I visit the parishes and other communities of faith from Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish in Hyde Park to Saint Christopher Parish in Kanab; from Saint James Parish in Vernal to San Felipe Parish in Wendover. I anticipate with enthusiasm getting to know the members of the Diocesan Pastoral Council, the Finance Council, the Liturgical Commission, the Hispanic Commission, and the Priest and Diaconate Councils. I look forward to making friends with the members of the many worthy commissions, organizations and committees that serve this diocese so well. I look forward to doing all those things friends do together: laughing, crying, praying and just shooting the breeze. And in the process, I hope to explore Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands and Zion National Parks. I hope to wear an "apron" not just in a few weeks at the Holy Thursday liturgy but at all times. And when necessary, I will take up my cross with you in the service of the Gospel as we become close friends together.

In all that I have said, one theme stands out clearly: I am called to be an instrument of unity in your midst. The bishop’s staff is an apt symbol for this paramount responsibility in the life and ministry of the bishop. St. Ignatius of Antioch, around 107, in addressing the Bishop of Smyrna said, "…unity, the greatest of all goods, [must] be your great preoccupation." I pray that this will be my "great preoccupation" as I seek to serve you by building on the good work of my predecessors as I strive to deepen the bonds that unite us. At the same time, I rely on you to show me the paths to that unity. As I become more a part of many wonderful cultures that make up the tapestry of this diocese, I will be challenged to understand more fully how Christ has been working in your traditions and how we can all benefit from what you share with the larger Church. I will be called to minister with you to the young and the elderly, the strong and the frail, the rich and the poor, the native peoples and the immigrants, the latter of whom I consider myself a member. Through your sharing with me I will learn more closely of my own biases and prejudices and open myself to the healing grace of Christ who destroys the barriers between us and makes us one body, one spirit in Himself.

Having heard my name called by Christ, both to service of the Catholic Church in Utah and to personal holiness, I hope to lead you into deeper friendship and unity with Christ and with one another. At the same time, I humbly and gratefully acknowledge that you will help me to be a faithful servant leader and you will assist me in following my personal call to holiness as I become a member of this believing community. While this focus is centered on our relationship with each other, it also includes an outreach to the wider community.

Finally, as your bishop, I am called to reach out to the wider community in order that the Gospel may be heard by everyone and all God’s children may be invited to the table of the Lord. St. Francis believed that some of his best homilies were delivered not from the pulpit but in the streets as he bound up the wounds of the sick, cared for the poor and ministered to the needy. Archbishop Niederauer has on his office wall a motto that hits home: "Always preach the Gospel. When necessary, use words." It is a motto he lives beautifully, I might add. Mary Magdalene was told by the risen Lord not to cling to him. Many scripture scholars believe that this was meant as a mandate for Mary to embrace a whole new way of living her faith, a way that would find her proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s resurrection to everyone, not just a select few. As I contemplate the almost 85,000 square miles of our new diocese, I realize that here again, I can only fulfill my duties as your bishop with you and with your help. I look forward to collaborating closely with Catholic Community Services of Utah and other such groups that serve others with distinction and selflessness. Through this collaboration, I will strive to reach out to everyone in Utah, seeking to be a serving presence where needed, a healing presence where wanted, and a loving presence where invited.

On the national level, I am privileged to serve on the Migration, Laity, and Vocation committees where I continue to learn that when people share resources and a common goal, much can be accomplished.

It is a good thing that I am saying these things in the context of this holy and sacred Eucharist. As I have tried to show, I cannot be your bishop without your necessary, integral help and collaboration. More to the point, we have to be fellow disciples, friends in Christ. And you and I cannot do any of this without Christ, the source and summit of who we are and what we do. In short, we need to "abide in Christ", and all that means, if we are to be Church and serve the larger community through the proclamation of the Gospel. This proclamation is, at its heart, a mission of love. I would like to refer one more time to Archbishop Quinn’s homily at Bishop Calvo’s ordination and installation. Toward the end, the Archbishop beautifully reminded us that "…a bishop should never forget that the pastoral office is conferred on Peter because he has the one quality above all others which Christ demands of a pastor in his Church. That quality is revealed in his repeated question to Peter, ‘Do you love me more than these?’ It is this personal love for Jesus Christ which is the first mark of the pastoral office. Of this love Pope Benedict has written with moving insight in this first gift to the Church, the Encyclical Letter, ‘God is Love’." As St. John would have it, this love has its source in the Father, is disclosed by the Son and is lived by the disciples, who abide in Christ, as they enter into friendship with the members of the community. John sees the disciples as "abiding" or mutually indwelling with Christ who is intimately close to them. Indeed, Christ is not just the vine; he is the whole tree, branches included, so that our lives, as branches, are intertwined inextricably with the life of Christ and with each other.

It is in this light that I make my prayer today that in the years ahead, you and I will become good friends. In this way, we will give glory and praise to Christ, crucified in weakness, raised in glory. To Him, who is the same yesterday, today and forever be the power and the glory and the honor, now and forever.