Bishop O'Connell's homily from the Diocesan Multicultural Mass Nov. 16, 2013
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
DIOCESE OF TRENTON MULTICULTURAL MASS
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Trenton
November 16, 2013
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
When this nation was established, our founding fathers were united intheir vision that all people were created equal. Generations came to these shores, bringing their cultural differences with them, not desiring to leave them behind but, rather, hoping to create "one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all." The great experiment that became America was tested in a crucible of diversity.
The results of that experiment proved that people could live together in a country which valued who they were, where they came from and what they hoped to become. Diversity was not seen as a problem to be overcome but, instead, a source of strength for our future. America was then and always has been a rich patchwork quilt of different colors and textures that welcomed the things that made us different while warming hearts with a belief and hope that we could be one.
Today, in the words of President George H. Bush, "we are a nation of communities --- a brilliant diversity spread like stars, a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky."
Today, as a Diocese, we are celebrating a "multicultural Mass." We gather in this Cathedral, the Diocese's mother Church, to celebrate the fact that we are, truly, "diverse in culture but united in faith."
We are ---all of us carrying our many ancestries and traditions with us --- we are created in God's image. That is the foundation of our existence, the source of our unity and the heart of our faith in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is Trinity, three persons in one God, and we reflect that community of persons in the lives we lead and the faith we share and celebrate together, created in God's image.
It does matter that we are different from one another but it means even more that those differences do not keep us from one another. The Catholic Church in the four counties of central New Jersey that define our Diocese is a "multicultural Church." What unites all the traditions that are represented here today and throughout our Diocese day in and day out is the fact that there is, as the Letter to the Ephesians reminds us, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all who is above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4: 5-6)." It is our faith that tells us, in the words of St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians, that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female. For you are all one in Christ's Jesus (Galatians 3: 28)." Although "diverse in culture", as Catholics, as
Christians, as believers, we look into the face of the African American, the Asian, the Latino, the European, the Anglo, and we recognize that we are all sisters and brothers in the Lord Jesus, "united in faith." We look into those faces --- black, brown, white, yellow, red --- and we see the face of Christ looking back.
Our baptism does not wash away our diversity; our baptism makes that diversity holy, consecrating it to and for one purpose: to reach out and embrace in love all the daughters and sons of God precisely because that is who we are. We belong to one another in the Lord. We are responsible for one another in the Lord. We need one another in the Lord. We love one another in the Lord. With God as our Father, with the Church as our Mather, we are "one body, one spirit," one community of faith, one family in Christ. We never see that reality as clearly as when we encounter one another in need.
Like the Good Samaritan in today's Gospel, we do not let our differences keep us from hearing and heeding Christ's call to love. And that calls is what moves us to respond, to reach out as a Diocese --- diverse in culture but united in faith --- to embrace to our sisters and brothers in the Philippines and southeast Asia in the wake of the devastating typhoon one week ago. That call to love is what moves us as a Diocese --- diverse in culture but united in faith --- to welcome the stranger among us so that he or she might be a stranger no more. That call to love Is what moves us as a Diocese --- diverse in culture but united in faith --- to preach good news to the poor, sight to the blind, freedom to those imprisoned, to announce God's favor and to live, really live in that spirit.
We are the Church, one Church, no matter where we come from or what we look like. Many different colors make a rainbow after a storm. Many different flowers make a garden. Many different instruments make an orchestra, many different voices make a chorus.
Today, in this Mass, let us open our eyes to see; let us open our ears to hear; let us lift up our minds and hearts, diverse in culture but united in faith, confident in hope and filled with joy, embracing one another in the love that alone identifies the true followers of Christ.
Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M.
Bishop of Trenton
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DIOCESE OF TRENTON MULTICULTURAL MASS
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Trenton
November 16, 2013
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
When this nation was established, our founding fathers were united intheir vision that all people were created equal. Generations came to these shores, bringing their cultural differences with them, not desiring to leave them behind but, rather, hoping to create "one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all." The great experiment that became America was tested in a crucible of diversity.
The results of that experiment proved that people could live together in a country which valued who they were, where they came from and what they hoped to become. Diversity was not seen as a problem to be overcome but, instead, a source of strength for our future. America was then and always has been a rich patchwork quilt of different colors and textures that welcomed the things that made us different while warming hearts with a belief and hope that we could be one.
Today, in the words of President George H. Bush, "we are a nation of communities --- a brilliant diversity spread like stars, a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky."
Today, as a Diocese, we are celebrating a "multicultural Mass." We gather in this Cathedral, the Diocese's mother Church, to celebrate the fact that we are, truly, "diverse in culture but united in faith."
We are ---all of us carrying our many ancestries and traditions with us --- we are created in God's image. That is the foundation of our existence, the source of our unity and the heart of our faith in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is Trinity, three persons in one God, and we reflect that community of persons in the lives we lead and the faith we share and celebrate together, created in God's image.
It does matter that we are different from one another but it means even more that those differences do not keep us from one another. The Catholic Church in the four counties of central New Jersey that define our Diocese is a "multicultural Church." What unites all the traditions that are represented here today and throughout our Diocese day in and day out is the fact that there is, as the Letter to the Ephesians reminds us, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all who is above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4: 5-6)." It is our faith that tells us, in the words of St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians, that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female. For you are all one in Christ's Jesus (Galatians 3: 28)." Although "diverse in culture", as Catholics, as
Christians, as believers, we look into the face of the African American, the Asian, the Latino, the European, the Anglo, and we recognize that we are all sisters and brothers in the Lord Jesus, "united in faith." We look into those faces --- black, brown, white, yellow, red --- and we see the face of Christ looking back.
Our baptism does not wash away our diversity; our baptism makes that diversity holy, consecrating it to and for one purpose: to reach out and embrace in love all the daughters and sons of God precisely because that is who we are. We belong to one another in the Lord. We are responsible for one another in the Lord. We need one another in the Lord. We love one another in the Lord. With God as our Father, with the Church as our Mather, we are "one body, one spirit," one community of faith, one family in Christ. We never see that reality as clearly as when we encounter one another in need.
Like the Good Samaritan in today's Gospel, we do not let our differences keep us from hearing and heeding Christ's call to love. And that calls is what moves us to respond, to reach out as a Diocese --- diverse in culture but united in faith --- to embrace to our sisters and brothers in the Philippines and southeast Asia in the wake of the devastating typhoon one week ago. That call to love is what moves us as a Diocese --- diverse in culture but united in faith --- to welcome the stranger among us so that he or she might be a stranger no more. That call to love Is what moves us as a Diocese --- diverse in culture but united in faith --- to preach good news to the poor, sight to the blind, freedom to those imprisoned, to announce God's favor and to live, really live in that spirit.
We are the Church, one Church, no matter where we come from or what we look like. Many different colors make a rainbow after a storm. Many different flowers make a garden. Many different instruments make an orchestra, many different voices make a chorus.
Today, in this Mass, let us open our eyes to see; let us open our ears to hear; let us lift up our minds and hearts, diverse in culture but united in faith, confident in hope and filled with joy, embracing one another in the love that alone identifies the true followers of Christ.
Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M.
Bishop of Trenton