The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, September 15, at St. Augustine
My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,
As you know, the last World Youth Day was held in Portugal, in Lisbon, and I had the privilege to attend and serve as a bishop catechist. But this World Youth Day was different because the dicastery that ran it instructed all the bishops to keep their remarks to 12 minutes. I could guarantee you there were some bishops who did not do that. But I tried my best. I tried.
The first topic that we explored was ecological stewardship, the proper care of all creation. My job was to listen to what the young adults were saying, and I tried to do that. At the very end, when they reported all that they had discussed, they I came up with wonderful ideas. The need to recycle, the need for education, the need for political advocacy, all the stuff, all good things. They are all good things. Then it was my turn to get up. Twelve minutes. I had to say something that made a difference. Quite frankly, it was a question that has been burning in my heart for a very long time. This is what I basically began my remarks by saying, I said, My dear friends, all these ideas you presented are great, but can one person in this church, there were about 200 and some odd, 19 countries, all English-speaking.
Is there one person in this church who could explain to me why any of what you are saying is Catholic? They all looked me. I said, I could be Jewish and recycle. I could be an atheist and do political advocacy. So tell me, what makes all of these things Catholic, Christian? Well, you could imagine they all began to murmur among themselves, and that was my hope, to raise a question that perhaps they had never asked themselves. But it is a question, my friends, that the apostle James, 2,000 years before, through the inspiration of the Holy spirit, asked and answered for them, for you, and for me.
We hear it in the second reading today. When James tells us that we who have faith in Jesus Christ are called to have that faith express itself in works, perhaps a better word than works is acts of goodness. Acts of charity, acts of mercy, acts of forgiveness. This faith cannot be held within itself, but it needs to manifest itself in the way we live, in our relations with each other. And the connection is the answer to my question. For you and I, my friends, as disciples of Jesus Christ, are called to do acts of goodness each day, as often as we we can, as sacrificial as we can, for two reasons: to give honor and glory to the One who is our savior and redeemer, and to build His kingdom brick by brick. To give honor and glory to Jesus Christ.
You know, my friends, we live in a world that wants goodness to be anonymous. But you and I will not do that. There’s an entire world waiting to answer Jesus’s question, who do you say this Jesus of Nazareth is? And we are the ones who, by our actions, will point them to the answer of that question. And we cannot do it unless we give glory to Christ in all that we do in His name. We should never forget that when we feed someone, we’re doing as Christ’s ambassador. Then when we clothe someone, we’re doing it because the Lord asked us to do it and to utter His name while doing it. In all the things that you and I are called to do, the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, we are there because Christ called us, Christ asked us, Christ graced us, Christ sent us out to proclaim His Holy name. You and I do not do goodness anonymously. We do it to give Him glory and to name who He really is. And as Jesus says in the gospel, it will require much sacrifice, and quite frankly, for us to truly do the works of goodness.
Only He can ask us to give until it hurts, until there’s nothing else to give, because we know in the end, He will give us a hundredfold a share in everlasting glory. We also do the things we do in goodness because we’re building the Kingdom of God one brick at a time, just ecological stewardship. I mean, my friends, even if the whole world converted, we have already created great damage to the creation God had given us as a great gift. Perhaps there may be a way to reverse it. I am not a scientist, I do not know.
But the truth is, for every problem and challenge in our world and all the sufferings they create, our job is not to go out there and think we can solve it permanently and make up for all its effects, because in our broken world, that is not what the Lord is asking. He will do that when He comes in glory. But what He does ask us to do is rebuild the world into His kingdom, one living brick at a time. For you and I to go into the lives of our neighbors and friends and coworkers and those who have offended us and may say, even our enemies, and to proclaim that we are there for their good because Jesus has asked us to love them. And in His name, we will to the end.
And even though you and I cannot make up for all of the effects of sin, we can begin to build in our midst a kingdom, His kingdom, with His grace, and show the world what it was meant to be from the garden of paradise. I have no idea, my friends, after my time with those young people, if they actually came to terms with my question because I only gave them a hint of the answer. The reason I did that is simply because they don’t need to hear it from my lips. They need to hear it from their hearts because that’s where they will find the Lord Jesus.
But I pray for them every day that they that answer as I pray for you and for me in the rough and tumble of our lives when we are called to do that which is good, that we will also remember the answer to that question.
