Bishop Patrick J. Zurek Homily July 8 at St. Joseph's Church

All of the Readings that we have used today can be summarized by the following teaching of Jesus found in St. John’s Gospel. “No one has greater Love than this, to lay down one’s life for a friend.” (Jn. 15:13) One can clearly see this in the love that a parent has for a child. The parent would do just about anything to save and protect a child. You often see this in the love that one spouse has for the other. One almost becomes the alter-ego of the other. They anticipate each other’s needs, desires, generosities and eagerness to reconcile. They freely give and receive love from each other. You can even see this in the best of friends, also. 
 
This is a true manifestation of Altruistic love. It exists and is expressed only to manifest the highest esteem to the person of one’s desire. It is expressed only to manifest the purest, unconditional desire and pleasure of being with the beloved. It is liberating. It only seeks the interests of the other. It allows the other to truly be the person God intended him or her to be. “Love is patient, love is kind.”
It is not suffocating. St. Paul adds, “Love is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it does not brood over injury; it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things…endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Cor. 13:4-8a) Love trusts the other. Love also allows the beloved to express the same to the lover and accepts his or her love unconditionally. It is never manipulative!
 
In the end, “only Faith, Hope and Love remain!”  But the “greatest of these is Love.” (1 Cor. 13:13) No wonder St. John wrote in his First Letter; “God is Love!”  (1 Jn. 4:16b) 
 
All love is based on the love that God has for us. In this sense, only a believing faithful Christian can experience true love and manifest true love to another. For, “whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” (1 Jn. 4:16b)  Further, even the atheist or agnostic who truly loves another, has already experienced God!  Love is truly powerful. St. Paul obviously understood this when he wrote his Letter to the Romans. There, Paul acknowledges that through the visible elements of creation, “his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.”(Rom. 1:20) However, what Paul did not mention is the uncreated powerful nature of love; unseen, yes! Untouchable, yes! Yet manifested in all that God has created and sustains; For “God is Love!” (1 Jn. 4:16a)
 
Paul concludes; for this they have no excuse; for “they did not accord Him Glory as God or give Him thanks.” (Rom. 1:20b) They knew God through love. They experienced the manifestation of God’s love in the ones that they loved and love. 
 
Jeremiah the Prophet seems to agree with this. “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (Jer. 31:31) “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts.”(Jer. 31:33b)
 
Finally, the Prophet reminds us of the interchangeable nature of the Hebrew word Hesed (חֶ֫סֶד ). It can mean God’s loving mercy or God’s merciful love. Remember, the love of God is manifested also by His mercy.
 
God chose to love Israel. And His love includes mercy and forgiveness. Jeremiah acknowledges this. “All, from the least to the greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:34b) 
 
How strange it is that we may love someone with all our desire and will, and yet find it so very difficult to forgive a pejorative word or a hurtful action. We either find it difficult to forgive…period! Or we say we forgive but we keep bring up the word or action that caused a coldness or distance between ourselves and another. God says in Jeremiah, “I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more. (Jer. 31:34b) In this we still have work to do!
 
We are created in the “image and likeness of God.” (Gen. 1:27) Yet we tend to be so much like the Apostle Thomas. We doubt! We often doubt the sincerity of an apology and the attempt of reconciliation. Yet St. Peter following the path of Thomas writes:  “Although you have not seen Him you love Him; even though you do not see Him now yet believe in Him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your Faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pt. 1:8-9) Can one even conceive of love with mercy and forgiveness?  Certainly not biblical love!
 
You may wonder where I am going with this.  It is simple, priests share the Sacrament of Holy Order with the Bishop. We share the ministry of doing everything in “Persona Christi”, that is, we do all in the very Person of Christ. 
 
You Religious Women who have Consecrated your lives to Christ in a sense are living Sacramentals of the love and mercy of God. In a world that finds it difficult to truly love, actually forgive and seek reconciliation and make the substantial commitment to Consecrated Religious Life, you sisters become living signs and symbols of God’s loving mercy and forgiveness.
 
Through your Readiness to love, your Willingness to love, your generosity and the unconditional gift of yourself in the name of Christ, you truly manifest the very presence of Christ in today’s world. You love without distinction of color, race, culture, customs, language or nationality; your love does not discriminate. It is freely given, even though many times it is not reciprocated. Then, if and when, you also allow this love to lead to forgiveness…given and received…then you truly manifest the presence of God to those you meet. You become the paradigm of God’s love…its concrete manifestation in the world.  You become examples!
 
Sister Damiana, congratulations. How wonderful to be able to say this; “For twenty-five years I have dedicated my one and only human life to God who is love.” Every day probably did not always reflect God’s love and mercy as well as you would have liked. However, you persevered! If you only had a clue how often you brought the presence of the living God to the suffering, the weak of body or spirit, to the depressed, the lonely, the lost and the frightened, you just might be overwhelmed! 
 
Sister, Thank You for twenty-five years of living your consecration…your gift of self to our loving God for the betterment of the world and as a sign of God’s love for every single human being.
 
Mother Juana Teresa and the Community of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, Congratulations! May the Lord Bless your community with more vocations! May the Blessed Mother Mary intercede for your needs and growth in holiness and love!
 
Most Reverend Patrick J. Zurek
Bishop of Amarillo
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Religious Profession
Sister Damiana Tamez  DLJC 
St. Joseph’s Church
Amarillo, Texas
July 8, 2017