ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,

It is a joy for me to welcome those from outside the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and to welcome all of you to this church dedicated to a great missionary, Saint Patrick, as we assemble for worship on this feast of another great missionary, Saint Peter Claver.

I am pleased that all of you who come together today do so in the name of Jesus, and that you aspire to exercise a gift that comes through the Church from God’s Holy Spirit. This gift is the gift of Catholic leadership in its various forms.

It is a credit to your Catholic faith and zeal that on this first day of deliberations and exchange the celebration of the Eucharist is central for you. It is important for you as members of God’s people to gather at the altar of Christ’s sacrifice, to invoke wisdom and strength, to proclaim your oneness in and with the Church, and to rededicate yourselves in Catholic unity to a mission which belongs to Jesus and which, through the Church, He shares lovingly with you.

How great is the human person! How great is man, creature and child of God, whom He made male and female and constituted as a brother or sister of Christ! And how great is the gift of knowing God, who is revealed in Jesus Christ, and in sharing the mission of communicating Him to others.

This parish church dedicated to its great patron, Saint Patrick, inspires all of us to strive in humble collaboration to promote the mission of the Church: to communicate Jesus to the world. I remember from years ago a remarkable reference made by the Venerable Servant of God Pope John Paul II about Saint Patrick. He mentioned what a tremendous effect the fidelity of one man has had on the Church for centuries. Saint Patrick has become the patron of Ireland and, through the Irish, the patron of Nigeria. His influence extends throughout time and space. Because of his fidelity, the fidelity of one man, our Lord Jesus Christ is still being powerfully communicated in so many parts of the world.

The second missionary that we revere today is Saint Peter Claver. How he understood human dignity as the greatness of God’s creation! How he understood and participated in the Church’s mission of communicating the uplifting Gospel of love and life to African slaves, becoming in his own expression “the slave of the slaves forever”!

Today, dear friends, in our first reading there emerges a clear expression of the beauty of human dignity and we also see the importance of the mission that God permits us to share in as members of His Church.

God explained to the prophet Jeremiah that He knew him even before he was formed in the womb. God said: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” How worthy then of respect is every human person who, like Jeremiah, is known and loved by God even before conception! And how awesome that every human person, like Jeremiah, has been assigned a mission before his or her birth, as God said: “Before you were born I dedicated you”!

And how lofty the mission of leadership assigned by God to each of us in His Church, in the measure that He wills! Like the mission of Jeremiah our mission is a sharing in God’s work. It is God who, through His Church, is uplifting the world communicating a knowledge of His Son and appealing for a response of obedience and love. We are instruments, chosen and privileged, but the message and the conditions for its effective communication belong to God and are guarded by the Church. God says: “To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak.” He goes on to encourage us and assure us: “Have no fear...because I am with you to deliver you.” How magnificently, dear friends, these words of God thunder down the centuries, challenging the Church, but reassuring her and comforting her: “I am with you .... See, I place my words in your mouth!”

These words of God provoke in us a response of trust and peace: “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.... To do your will, O my God, is my delight.”

In our efforts to build up God’s Kingdom, efforts which must always include the mission of Jesus “to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives” we are so blessed in the Church to have such great examples of missionary saints. How relevant for our mission today is Saint Peter Claver, who continues to teach us how evangelization in the Church must always include, together with a clear proclamation of God’s revealed truths, an earnest promotion of human dignity. As he baptized over three hundred thousand people, Saint Peter Claver gave his life, endeavoring to lift so many brothers and sisters out of the squalor of slavery.

Dear friends: Is not this “Catholic Leadership Conference” a splendid opportunity for all of you, in the measure given you by Christ, to rededicate yourselves to collaboration, by prayer and action, in and with the Church, in the great mandate that the Lord Jesus left with His disciples? Certainly the whole Church is called to contribute in different ways to this plan so clearly presented by Jesus to the disciples: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

As we endeavor to support and promote all that Jesus has commanded, we also must commit ourselves to promote it in the way that is characteristic of Him, who says to us: “I am meek and humble of heart.” Leadership must indeed be clear, strong and dynamic. But it must also be invested with the gentle action of the Spirit, who is known by the fruits that He stirs up in the hearts of those who invoke Him in prayer. These fruits have been so masterfully described by Saint Paul and summarized by the Church as: “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity” (cf. Gal 5:22-23; CCC, 1832). Surely these fruits of the Holy Spirit embody so much of what constitutes the Catholic leadership of your daily lives and the splendid contribution that you are able to make in building up the kingdom of God.

And finally, dear friends, as you strive, guided by your holy Catholic faith, to lead others in the way of salvation, you must listen anew to Jesus, who in the power of His Spirit, continues to say to you: “Behold I am with you, always, until the end of the age.” Amen.