welcome to st. Patrick's Cathedral
everybody America's America's parish
church I'm very glad you're here and I
wish you a blessed feast day of your
founder st. Josemaria Escriva father
Bolan and and my brother priests women
and men religious and especially you
beloved members of Opus Dei I welcome
the opportunity to offer Mass this
evening on the feast day because it
gives me the chance to thank you to
thank you for your wonderful vocation
your charism your presence and witness
here in the Archdiocese of New York I'm
very familiar with so many of the
consecrated lives that you lead I'm very
familiar with the good work of of
priests and spiritual direction and
serving as confessors and gratefully
aware of your apostolate at Saint Agnes
parish right smack dab in midtown
Manhattan
st. Josemaria would be happy and I'm
just so grateful II aware of the silent
day-in day-out witness that all of you
give to the pursuit of holiness the
unity response to the universal call
goodness in the apostolate of your work
so I thank God for the gift that you are
to the church universal and in a
particular way here in the archdiocese
yard we're blessed to have this
beautiful Gospel reading but father
Boland just proclaimed and I think you
will agree with me that this gospel
episode from Saint Matthew's Gospel very
much caps Eliza's the extraordinarily
rich insights that st. Josemaria Escriva
left to the church
let me just mention four of them four of
them from this evening's gospel that I
think you will agree arise from the
charism of st. Josemaria and Opus Dei
number one would be the mandate that
Jesus gave to the Apostles in the boat
cast out to the deep the Latin Duke in
Alton cast out to the deep like many
phrases of Jesus that has a literal
meaning and that has a symbolic meaning
the literal meaning obviously was Jesus
was telling Peter and the Apostles get
out there there are fish out there all
right
the spiritual meaning is deeper and the
Fathers of the Church and your founder
saw that mandate of Jesus to cast out to
the deep as the call the call to plummet
the depths of the soul in the pursuit of
perfection deep deep down within us
dwells the Most Blessed Trinity deep
deep down with is in us is the very life
of God and sanctifying Grace and when
Jesus tells us to cast out to the deep
he means pursue perfection pursue
sanctity look into the depth there's
where the deep is look into the depth of
your soul and nurture there the flame of
God's life within cast out to the deep
the call to perfection I was very moved
a couple weeks ago at a meeting a
meeting in Washington DC where
Archbishop Archbishop Jose Gomez the
Archbishop of Los Angeles it was a
meeting to try to bring together maybe
divergent thoughts or
within the church in striving for unity
and Archbishop Gomez very powerfully
said look we are all called to be Saints
and that pursuit of sanctity that desire
to be a saint is what brings unity to
all of us all of us Archbishop Gomez
knew what Jesus was talking about
Archbishop Gomez knows what Saint
Josemaria meant do you remember when
Pope Benedict the sixteenth assumed the
chair of st. Peter it was his first
address as Bishop of Rome and the world
the world was expecting an
extraordinarily cerebral and erudite
theological sermon from this towering
intellectual and Pope Benedict the
sixteenth captivated the church in the
world when he said simply I call you to
holiness of life which means friendship
with Jesus I call you the holiness of
life with me meat which means friendship
with Jesus there's number one cast out
to the deep number two a second a second
conclusion from the gospel that so rings
true in the teaching of your founder
those apostles responded somewhat
reluctantly responded to the mandate of
Jesus to cast out to the deep in their
work he called them as fishermen to do
their jobs
cast out to the deed that was their work
that was their occupation they were
fishermen and he sanctified that work
that vocation because it became
the agency of a miracle in the
miraculous draught of fish so did st.
Josemaria encourage all of us to find
sanctity to cast out to the deep not in
some exotic apostolates not just in
faraway missionary lands not just in
clustered convents our sanctuaries of
concede rules no to cast out to the deep
to pursue perfection to go after
sanctity in our professions in our work
in our labor an insight that seems so
simple that it is downright profound so
he anticipating the great teaching of
the Second Vatican Council would be the
poet of the universal call to holiness
everyone is called the holiness and
sanctity everyone is called to the
pursuit of perfection in whatever walk
of life we find ourselves in sight
number 3 the move to repentance
st. Peter st. Peter was so moved by the
miracle st. Peter was so embarrassed by
his initial reluctance and his
sluggishness in his obedience to the
command of Jesus to cast out to the deep
that he fell in repentance at the feet
of the master leave me Lord for I am a
sinful man oh how often did st.
Josemaria call us to conversion of heart
and repentance of life how often did he
recommend the
and how often did he recommend acts of
sacrifice and penance how often did he
encourage us to the very Sacrament of
Penance he knew we were all like st.
Peter at the feet of Jesus
leave me Lord for I am a sinful man as
we are moved to contrition to conversion
of hearts and to repentance of life like
st. John the Baptist whose nativity we
celebrated last Sunday
it was Jose Maria that prophetically
called the world to the conversion that
characterized st. Peter in this
evening's gospel and finally number four
the gospel ends with Jesus calling those
fishermen come follow me
come follow me which words that the
church has always interpreted as the
summons to discipleship the invitation
to discipleship say Maria would agree
that the pre mere vocation in the church
is the call to discipleship first and
foremost we are called to be disciples
of Jesus if we don't have that no other
vocation makes sense the call to
discipleship Jorge waggle the celebrated
biographer of Pope st. John Paul the
second tells the story that after he had
completed his witness to hope his
Magisterial biography of John Paul as
most authors he left the introduction to
the end right so the book was done most
of the work was over
but he didn't know how to title the
introduction he said what should I call
the introduction and he said it he
wrestled with it for hours should I call
the introduction the poll since john
paul ii exude that sense of Polish
identity should I call the introduction
the thinker
since care of idea was such an
astoundingly astute thinker should I
call it the preface the philosopher the
theologian should I call the preface the
priest should I call the preface the
bishop since he so cherished his years
as Archbishop of Krakow should I call
should I call the preface the Confessor
of faith in his standing up with courage
to not see in communist atrocity finally
finally finally George Weigel came upon
the answer I will simply entitle the
preface the disciple the disciple
because first and foremost care of idea
john paul ii saw himself as a disciple
of our lord and savior jesus christ the
most important identity in his life from
which every other description charism
and both
Asian float Jose Maria
st. Josemaria would agree the primacy of
discipleship those four points I hold up
to you this evening everybody
as we celebrate his feast in this most
fitting way Duke and Alton the call to
interior perfection the call to
perfection within their work their
labors their professions the move to
repentance a see Peter a model of us all
and the primacy of the call to
discipleship