PRESS RELEASE from the Archdiocese of Washington
Archbishop Wuerl's Homily for Mass in Anticipation of the Presidential
Inauguration
January 18, 2009
Below is the homily of Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl for a
Mass in Anticipation of the Presidential Inauguration, held on Sunday,
January 18, 5:30 pm at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in
Washington, DC. The archbishop also will give a prayer for the nation
at the National Prayer Service on January 21. Washington Auxiliary
Bishop Francisco Gonzalez, S.F., will read a Scripture passage in
Spanish at that same event.
Archbishop Wuerl's January 18 homily:
All over this city there are signs of the preparations for the
inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. This
celebration marks for our nation a continuity in peaceful transition
from one administration to the next, an historic moment as a person of
color, an African American, a man reflective of a minority within our
country, is installed in the highest executive office of the land. All
of us can see in this occasion an indication of our historic, proud,
but not always realized, boast to be a land where all are equal and
where one’s aspirations are limited only by one’s own abilities and
initiative.
Such an event – the installation of the President of the United States
– causes us to reflect on our national history, our identity and,
therefore, the significant role that religious faith plays in our
self-recognition. In fact, the earliest European colonists who settled
this land along the coasts of both shining seas were those who came
imbued with a sense of call and mission reminiscent of what we read
today in the First Book of Samuel.
It was Samuel whom the Lord called. Once Samuel understood who it was
that beckoned him, he replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
This evening’s reading goes on to tell us, “Samuel grew up, the Lord
was with him…”
In its own way in its history, our nation has likewise tried to respond
to God’s word. We are a people of faith, we have been so from our
beginnings, confident that God calls us to be a truly good and just
society. As we have grown and prospered we have tried to see in our
lives the hand of God.
Among the earliest European colonists to arrive were the pilgrims who
landed on the coast of Massachusetts. Before they left the small ship,
the Mayflower, and ventured to shore to establish what would be for
them a new experience in living, they reached an agreement known
historically as the Mayflower Compact. In 1620 these intrepid women and
men seeking a life of freedom determined that they would recognize two
principles by which their freedom would be guided: the law of God and
the common good.
“In the name of God, amen” they began this first written articulation
of a political philosophy in the English Colonies that has served as an
underpinning for the American political experience for almost four
hundred years. At the heart of this formula is the understanding that
God and God’s law is normative for human action and that in the
application of that basic principle and its translation into positive
civil law the common good would also exercise a normative function.
We recognize that same vision and generosity of spirit among the first
Catholic colonists who arrived in Maryland in 1634. They set about
establishing a civil government based on religious freedom and on God’s
law as a norm for a new society in which all would be free and each
person’s worth would be valued.
We also recall those early Catholic settlers in what is now California.
Just as the pilgrim and Catholic colonists planted the seeds for a
novel form of governance and a new level of appreciation for the human
person so too did those hardy explorers and valiant friars on the other
coast.
Within our Capital city, in one of its most distinguished national
symbols, is a memorial to the founding of our nation on the West Coast
and the religious inspiration that guided it. The United States Capitol
includes statues from every state. Representing California is Father
Junipero Serra. It is hard to imagine another person who has left as
deep an impact on any state in the union as has this quiet, modest,
faith-filled Franciscan. We are reminded of his legacy in the name of
communities along most of the coast of California. Interwoven into the
very geography of that state is its religious history and the Catholic
faith that played such an important part in both its founding and its
spiritual and moral identity.
Today, Church buildings and houses of worship and prayer all over this
land are a testimony to our religious heritage and tangible
verification of its impact on our lives, individually and collectively.
A visit to church, as we do this evening, is both an exercise in
history and a religious pilgrimage of faith. Churches are a witness in
our day that the same faith in God that marked our nation’s beginnings
continues to thrive, to inspire, to form and to give identity to who we
are today. Since we are both members of the Church and citizens of the
state we should expect that our faith should be reflected in our public
life.
When asked what is it that our Catholic faith brings to the world, to
our society, to this city, to each one of us, we answer Jesus Christ,
his Gospel, his vision, his way of life and his promise of a world of
truth, justice, compassion, kindness, understanding, peace and love. We
speak of a good and just society, but with the eyes of faith we see
God’s kingdom coming to be among us.
In the second reading today from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the
Corinthians we are reminded of why it is that we need to be committed
to working for a truly good and just society: “Whoever is joined to the
Lord becomes one spirit with him. We are not given over to immorality
but rather recognize that we are temples of the Holy Spirit and that we
have been purchased at a price.”
As believers we look to our faith. We are both citizens of the nation
and members of the Church, of a greater spiritual kingdom yet to be
fully realized. We exercise our responsibilities in prayer for our
nation, its leaders, its government and its people and, at the same
time, we work so that, as the Gospel points out, we can recognize in
Jesus our true teacher – the one who shows us the way.
Shortly after the elections, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI sent a
congratulatory message to President-elect Obama and expressed his wish
that the Lord “support you and the people of the United States in your
efforts, together with all men and women of good will, to build a world
of peace, solidarity and justice.”
We are reminded as we gather in prayer this evening for our nation and
its new president of the invocation of divine blessing by Cardinal
James Gibbons in 1887. Then he called our Catholic family to prayer in
words that well serve us this day: “We pray Thee, O God of might,
wisdom and justice, through whom authority is rightly administered,
laws are enacted and judgment decreed, to assist with Thy holy spirit
of counsel and fortitude the President of the United States, that his
administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently
useful to Thy people over whom he presides, by encouraging due respect
for virtue and religion, by a faithful execution of the laws in justice
and mercy, and by restraining vices and immorality.”
As Catholics we look to our Church for guidance that can only come from
God. We believe that the teaching of the Church represents for us an
opening on to the wisdom of God and we should look to our most deeply
held convictions when we address matters that effect our nation’s
activities at home or abroad. Over centuries the voice of the Church
has been the voice of conscience.
The impact of well articulated faith-based principles have most
evidently helped to form public policy in the United States in the area
of human dignity and the improvement of working conditions that were a
routine part of the American scene at the time of our grandparents and
even parents. The Church brought to the debate the strongest moral
voice even when she was not always welcome. Most of the social
legislation of the 1930’s and later finds its moral foundation and
philosophical formulation in the magisterium of the Church.
Today our struggle is to achieve the same success echoing Pope John
Paul II’s encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, and its defense of all human
life from conception to natural death.
What faith brings to our world is a way of seeing life and reality, a
way of judging right and wrong, a norm against which we can see our
life measured in light of the wisdom of God.
The voice of faith today, as it has been for centuries, is still the
voice of conscience, the voice of God within our hearts calling us to
what we ought to do.
In the world that still longs for perennial and spiritual values and in
a society that needs to appreciate all the more the powerful gift of
faith, we can take renewed strength in God’s grace.
Looking to the future of our great country, we should do so with hope,
confidence and enthusiasm, knowing that we bring something particularly
valuable to the effort to build a good and just society. We share the
wisdom and love of God.
Shortly, we will pray in the prayer of the faithful for our
President-elect soon to be installed and for our nation. As we do so,
let us be mindful of the words of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI,
in his recent and historic visit to our nation: “As the nation faces
the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am
confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs
a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned,
responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more
humane and free society.”
We pray that this dialogue will help, above all, knit together a new
respect for the dignity of the human person and the value of all human
life. It is an appreciation understood by our founding fathers who
wrote of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, rights so endowed to us by God, our Creator.
As our nation in a few short days turns a page in its history and opens
a new chapter, let us as a people of hope pray for our President that
he might always be open to the stirrings of the Spirit of God and as a
people of faith that we might always respond as today’s Liturgy calls
us to do in a way that our deepest convictions are expressed, heard and
appreciated.
Contact:
Susan Gibbs
Director of Communications