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Homily, Misa Aire Libre My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: It is a great joy to welcome you to our annual celebration of the Spanish field Mass. I am most grateful to you for your presence here. I wish also to thank the Markes family for inviting us here to their beautiful property. Your kindness is truly appreciated. Indeed, I thank all who have been so gracious and helpful in preparing for this celebration. This afternoon it is also a great joy to welcome once again Sister Rosario Martinez, the new Director of our Hispanic Ministry. Yes, indeed, it is good for us to be here! In the Gospel today, the Apostles ask Jesus to give them “an increase of faith.” Jesus then assures them that if they have even a small degree of faith, they can do marvelous things. For their faith to grow, He directs them to become good and faithful servants. This means to fulfill the responsibility we have as individuals, as parents, as lay people, as religious and as clergy. We are reminded that the greatest commandment is to love God totally and completely. We must also love our neighbor as ourselves. This love is evidenced in Jesus Who said He came to serve and not to be served. Like the Apostles, we too must have faith in Jesus. We believe that He is the Son of God. We believe that He is our Lord and Savior. We believe that He loves us and wants us all to have eternal life with Him in heaven. Our faith is in Jesus and it must grow and increase throughout our lives. Precisely because we are a people of faith in Jesus, today has been designated in the United States as Respect Life Sunday. While we live in a world of sin and confusion, we have faith. We believe that with the help of Jesus, we can reduce the violence and suffering among people. Therefore, the American bishops are directly us to respect all life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. If, as a people of faith, we focus our attention on the beauty and dignity of every human person, we will overcome hatred, injustice and violence. As individual persons and even as the community of the Archdiocese, we might not be able to change the whole world. We can however change our attitudes and our outlook. We can become stronger in faith by turning to the Lord. Like the Apostles, we can ask Jesus, “Lord increase our faith” and He will. He will bless us. He will help us. He will strength our faith. Then, with the help of God’s grace, we can bring about reconciliation in our own families and peace in our hearts. God is so very good. He is loving. He cares for us and watches over us. Patiently He waits for us to respond to His invitation to a new and better life. For this reason, He shares His life with us. “Take My Flesh and eat It,” He says. “Take My Blood and drink It and you shall have life everlasting.” My dear friends in Christ, we are so blessed to be able to gather here together in faith to celebrate this Holy Eucharist. May this moment be for each of us the occasion of strengthening our faith, our hope and our love in Jesus. And together may we live the fullness of our Catholic faith. |