Solemn Mass of Installation
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
February 14, 2014
 
Scripture: Zeph 3:14-18a, Eph 4:11-16, Lk 19:1-10

Praised be Jesus Christ – Now and Forever.

It is good for us to begin today with the name of Jesus on our lips and in our hearts. He is the center of our gathering, and he is the truth of our lives. Invoking his name becomes for us a reminder of his presence here with us on this historic day in which I am installed as the Twelfth Bishop of Portland.

The diocese was founded in 1853, but the roots of the faith that gathers us together here predate that by some two hundred and fifty years. The Catholic faith has been preached, confessed, and celebrated here in this beautiful land for over 400 years. Brought by the French missionaries under the sign of the Holy Cross, which now decorates the diocesan seal, it was embraced by the Native Americans who already dwelt peacefully in these lands before the explorations of English and French. Over succeeding generations, even to our day, it has been proclaimed and confessed by the new peoples settling in this land. We are a part of a wonderful tradition which connects us to the past and sends us forward into the future to do what has been done – to proclaim the Gospel. We believe that Gospel is the source of joy and meaning for our lives. As I begin my service to you as the Twelfth Shepherd, I ask once again that you pray for me as we embark together on this new chapter in the history of this grace-filled local Church.

Before I move too far along in this homily, I hope you will permit me to offer a word of thanks to a few people.

I am very grateful for the presence with us today of Archbishop Viganò. He represents for us the presence of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who has kindly made this appointment out of his pastoral concern for the people of Maine. Your Excellency, we thank you for the effort you have made to be with us today. Please assure Pope Francis, our shepherd, a man who, with his every word and gesture, proclaims the Gospel of Joy he preaches, that we are grateful for his care for the people of Maine and that we hold him in prayer, and we ask the same of him.

I am grateful as well for the presence of Séan Cardinal O’Malley and for his kindness in presiding today. Allow me also to offer my profound thanks to the 11^th Bishop of Portland, Bishop Malone, for his welcome here today and for his great service to this diocese over the last 10 years. Know that you are always welcome back here in Maine. Our gathering here in the sanctuary is somewhat historic today. We have four bishops present now who have occupied the bishop’s chair in this Cathedral. We are honored by the presence of the 10^th Bishop of Portland, Bishop Joseph Gerry. Thank you for the generosity with which you have assisted Bishop Malone in these months when he was administering the diocese.

I am grateful as well today for the presence of my family. I would point out that we take up a few rows. It could have been more rows, but I suggested that some of them stay home. We did not want to take over the whole Cathedral! My family is a source of great blessing for me. Thank you for your support and your presence.

I appreciate as well today the presence of the bishops from the region and the country who have come here today. We welcome our public officials and representatives from other churches and faith traditions who honor us with their presence today. There are many friends here today from the many different parts of my life. Many I have known in the places and communities I have been privileged to minister. I thank you all for your friendship and all the kindness you have shown me through the years.

Today, I begin a whole new part of my ministry. And so I greet in a special way the priests, religious, and laity of this Diocese of Portland. I come as your new shepherd, and, as Pope Francis is fond of telling bishops, I will have to get to know the smell of the sheep before I can serve you as well as the Lord Jesus calls me to. I know already of the wonderful work that is done throughout the diocese in the service of God’s people. Getting to know you better will include becoming acquainted with the vast beautiful territory, and all its many roads, that is the State of Maine. I will have plenty of time to do that. On my trip up for the press conference in December, I saw a sign on the highway once I crossed the border from New Hampshire. It read, “Maine. Worth a visit; Worth a lifetime.” I said to myself, I guess this time it is the lifetime. This won’t be just a visit.

Though I look forward to being with you all and am grateful for your presence heretoday, I am sure you will understand that I would very much like to single out our faithful priests of this diocese and the religious priests who minister alongside of them. These men serve our people so generously and with such dedication. I look forward to working with them and helping them as I can as they work daily to bring the Gospel to the many places in which they serve the Church, and particularly in our parishes. These priests, in accord with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, are my first collaborators in the pastoral care of the diocese and, therefore, an object of my special concern. These years have not been easy for priests. The grave failings of some of our number have been both a cause of shame and humiliation to the many. As well, it has not been easy to continue to preach the message of the Gospel and its call to respect the dignity of the human person as created by God in an increasingly secular world. We are so grateful for our faithful priests, for their daily acceptance of their vocation, for their fidelity to the mission the Church entrusts to them, and for their continuing dedication to the people they serve. Thank you!

Our gathering takes place on February 14^th. I am sure you are well aware of the fact that today the Church remembers in her liturgical calendar Saints Cyril and Methodius. Perhaps you were thinking of someone else’s name? St. Valentine. Speaking of St. Valentine, I am reminded of a time when I was working in Rome, at the Vatican, I was talking with one of the women who worked with me. She had been recently married. It was this weekend, and we had a holiday. I asked what she had done. She told me she had visited Dublin in Ireland where she and her new husband wanted to visit the relics of Saint Valentine. Leaving Rome (La Dolce Vita, etc) to visit Dublin for romance? And, in winter? But, I discovered that her reason for making such a trip is genuine. A few hundred years ago one of our popes gave an important set of relics of St. Valentine to an Irish priest, and they are now in Dublin. St. Valentine continues to be a patron of romantic love. Saints Cyril and Methodius, however, are also saints of God’s love. They gathered a Church in Eastern Europe. They proclaimed the message of God’s love to a people that had not yet heard it. Valentine reminded us that a powerful sign of this same love of God is the commitment of man and woman in the Sacrament of Matrimony. As we honor these saints, we are reminded that God’s love is at the heart of our gathering for that is the message that Jesus came to proclaim, and it is the message of the Gospel, the message that the Church is called to proclaim.

We are Church. What we do today, as we celebrate this Eucharist, is to pray that we will be more able to be the Church the Lord calls us to be. We are guided by the Word of God we have heard proclaimed. We gather in the communion of the Church. For the first time today, you and I will hear my name included in the Eucharistic prayer. This Mass of Installation is a good opportunity to remind us all that we are the Church in Maine, and called to be supportive of each other as, together, we do the work of our local Church. We do it in communion with one another. When you pray for me, you pray for our Church here in Maine. It does not mean, as a friend of mine recently pointed out, that I am the only Catholic in Maine. We are the Church. Our communion in the love of God is expressed in the mission we share to live out the Gospel and bring it to others. The installation of a new bishop gives us a graced opportunity to renew ourselves in this communion and this responsibility.

The passage from the Gospel we have heard today is the beautiful story of Zacchaeus. He is the rich, but unhappy, man Jesus encounters on his journey to Jerusalem, the journey which will bring him to the Cross and Calvary. This Gospel story is a favorite of many people, but as I reflected on it, I recalled that it was a favorite Scripture passage of a priest who was very important in my life. His name was Msgr. John Keilty. He was in my parish when I was in school. He had a great influence on my life and encouraged me to listen to the Lord’s call to enter the seminary. Later in life, years after my own ordination, I was privileged to live with him in the final years of his service as a pastor. He loved to preach on this Gospel. Msgr Keilty was short in stature, and he would tell how he identified with Zacchaeus who had to climb into the tree to see Jesus coming. But, as he preached, you came to know that there was another, more important, reason he identified with Zacchaeus. Jesus recognized and accepted Zacchaeus, even though he was not a perfect man. In this Gospel story, Msgr Keilty himself came to know Jesus as loving him, and he was happy to bring that Good News, that Gospel, to others in his preaching and in his life. How many of us cannot help but see in this story of Zacchaeus the very heart of the Gospel? Jesus, in his mercy and compassion, comes to be with us because of his great love for each of us. We know we are not perfect, but we are striving to live as Jesus asks of us because we have experienced his love and compassion.

The story of Zacchaeus, for Msgr Keilty and for each of us, is a story of Jesus wanting to be with us, and asking us to invite him, not only into our homes but into our hearts.

In Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, in which our Holy Father presents for us a magnificent call to evangelize, he reminds us of something central to our faith.

“I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI, which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (EG 7).

Jesus is that person. Once we have met Jesus in this way we, too, will want to share what we have come to know about him with others. As Pope Francis reminds us, that is the heart of evangelization.

“For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?” (EG 8)

And, when we encounter Jesus and his love for us, we discover that he has a plan for each of us, a way of living that calls us to follow him, each in our own way.

One author commenting on the story of Zacchaeus points out that Jesus’ call is different as he encounters different people along his way. He changes the lives of many by letting them know of God’s love for them. Zacchaeus is one of them. But notice that he is not asked to be a disciple or to take to the road and be with Jesus. As far as we know, he went back to work, collecting taxes, but probably doing it in a more just fashion. It is a reminder to us that Jesus calls us for different tasks, but he calls each of us to know him, to experience the love he brings us and, on fire with that love, to bring it to others.

We are all called. We all have a vocation. God has a purpose in life for each of us. As I begin my service to you, I want to remind us all of that. We all have a responsibility to live the Gospel in the way that God has chosen for us. That being said, I would like to single out one vocation we need to work on as a Church community. Msgr Keilty, out of his own experience of Jesus, and his love for the Church, invited me and a number of other young men in our parish to consider the possibility that we might be called to be priests. A number of us entered the seminary from the parish. Only some of us were ordained, but who knows what would have happened if no one had invited us? We need the same to be happening today. We are a Church which draws its life and strength from the Eucharist. We need priests to make that possible. As we strengthen our parish communities as places of welcome where young people can encounter Jesus, we need to engage them in conversation about what the Lord might be calling them to do with their lives. As a community in the diocese, we need to acknowledge that we need more priests. It is our responsibility, priests and laity alike, to pray and to work for an increase in vocations to priesthood and religious life. Part of that responsibility will be fulfilled in inviting our young people, and particularly our young men, to consider how they are going to respond to Jesus’ call to them, and whether God is calling them to priesthood.

In my remarks at the press conference announcing my appointment, I set out no agenda or program, and I do not do that today either. We need to do that together. I need to hear from you. We need to get to know each other. There will be challenges we will have to encounter. We will always need to be attentive, in a particular way, to those whose lives have been so hurt by the scandals which have harmed them and the Church. We will continue our efforts to support the survivors and all victims of abuse. And we will continue to work to see to it that the Church is a safe environment for our children.

If there is to be a direction set, it will have to come from the Scripture, and the words of my motto from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians gives us a point of reference: “Living the truth in love.” The Truth for us is Jesus Christ and his message. Our response to the message of love we have received is to live that truth in charity. We witness by the love, mercy and compassion we see in Jesus’ dealing with Zacchaeus. We are called in a particular way to bring that to those who suffer and, more specifically, to those who are poor, marginalized, lonely or forgotten. I know that we have many such programs, organizations and parish outreach opportunities in this diocese. It is only right for it is the way in which we put our faith into action. And, as we serve others, even though we can experience it as a real challenge in our world today, we must continue to bear witness to the dignity of human life and every human person from conception to natural death, the dignity of Christian marriage and the good of children which is intimately part of this sacred union. It is the dignity of each person as well that grounds our special love and concern for the poor, and calls us to be vigilant in the protection of religious liberty so that we can continue to advocate for the goods of human life we find grounded in reason and enshrined in the teaching of the Gospel. How beautifully we continue to cherish the example and direction set for us by our Holy Father Francis in all these challenges. In all the ways in which he speaks to us, he shows us the joy that the Gospel brings to his life and can bring to ours. Most recently, he had this to say in his Lenten message:

“The Lord asks us to be joyous heralds of his message of mercy and hope! It is thrilling to experience the joy of spreading this good news, sharing the treasure entrusted to us, consoling broken hearts and offering hope to our brothers and sisters experiencing darkness. It means following and imitating Jesus, who sought out the poor and sinners as a shepherd lovingly seeks his lost sheep. In union with Jesus, we can courageously open up new paths of evangelization and human promotion” (Lenten Message - 2014).

That, my brothers and sisters, gives us sufficient challenge for our future together.

Invoking the intercession of Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, to whom we will entrust ourselves today in this Cathedral which carries her name, I ask you to pray that I will be a worthy and joy-filled shepherd of you, the holy people that God has entrusted to my care. And that together we might be the community of the Church in Maine which truly is “living the truth in love,” proclaiming the “Joy of the Gospel.”

Most Reverend Robert P. Deeley
Twelfth Bishop of Portland