ROME — Journeying to Rome to meet with Pope Francis and pray at
the tombs of the apostles is an occasion for grace, growth and renewal, said
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military
Services.
In the day’s readings at Mass Dec. 3, “We hear a simple
invitation, ‘Come to me'” and follow Christ, who “restored us to
life,” the archbishop said in his homily, addressing bishops of U.S.
Region IV — the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, U.S. Virgin
Islands, West Virginia and the Archdiocese for the Military Services.
Bishop Burbidge (right) joins other bishops in prayer at the tomb of St. Paul Dec. 3. ANN M. AUGHERTON | CATHOLIC HERALD
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge and Bishop Emeritus Paul S. Loverde were
among the concelebrants of the Mass.
A very real example of resurrection was all around them, the archbishop
said, indicating the vast, ornate surroundings inside the Basilica of St. Paul
Outside the Walls. Though founded by Constantine in the fourth century, the
basilica — Rome’s second largest — had to be completely rebuilt after a
devastating fire in the 1800s.
“For us, it remains a great symbol of the possibility of
rebuilding, of the effectiveness of a new evangelization, and of the importance
not to be daunted by what seem to be insurmountable odds,” the archbishop
said.
“If we hear the voice of despair with a temptation not to
respond to the urgings of the Word,” he said, “we must recognize in
them the work of the evil one and draw strength and sustenance from the word
and sacrament.”
The call, “Come to me,” is for those who realize they
cannot do anything without God, and only then “can we enter into communion
with him, taking up his light yoke,” he said.
“So often in our ministerial lives, this yoke does not seem
so light: there are many requirements if we want to remain faithful, so many
demands are made upon our time. Of late we almost seem to be assailed from all
sides,” Archbishop Broglio said.
For this reason, he said, it is good to remember that for
Christians, freedom “is never ‘from’ anything, but always ‘for’ something.
It is that freedom that allows us to fulfill the charge entrusted to us.”
The Region IV bishops’ “ad limina” visit to the Vatican
Dec. 2-6 included a nearly three-hour meeting Dec. 3 with Pope Francis, who
“urged us all to become missionary disciples,” Archbishop Broglio
said.
“The verb from which ‘disciple’ is derived means both ‘to
teach’ and ‘to learn.’ We know that we must do both if we are to preach the
Gospel effectively to our contemporaries,” he said, and that they must
draw continually from God’s word in order to “make all things new in
Christ.”
“Even in prison, Paul did not cease to make the Gospel
known, to confirm the faith of those evangelized and to count his sufferings as
nothing because they filled up what was lacking in him of the cross of
Christ,” he said.
Reflecting on the day’s memorial of St. Francis Xavier,
co-founder of the Jesuits and a “tireless missionary,” the archbishop
said, “we beg to be renewed in our enthusiasm for the mission.”
“We are challenged by those who have abandoned the practice
of the faith, by the young who claim they have no religious affiliation, by the
scandals of the past or by the mere length of the day,” he said, but the
example of both St. Paul and St. Francis Xavier urge them to “spring
forward and to shout in the squares” proclaiming the Good News.
The bishops are asked to be “constantly vigilant to preserve
a great balance in their life, to maintain it ever in the simplicity of the
present moment and in the living out of the Gospel,” he said.
Those “learned in theology” should meditate on
“spiritual realities” and listen attentively to what God is saying to
them, the archbishop said. By doing so “they would forget their own
desires, their human affairs and give themselves over entirely to God’s will
and his choice.”
“They would cry out with all their heart, ‘Lord, I am here;
what do you want me to do?'”
