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Investiture of Monsignor
Weisenburger My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Gathered together during this Octave of Christmas, we give thanks and praise to our good and loving God. God so loves our world that He sent His Son Jesus to save us. A few days ago, we celebrated the birth of Jesus, proclaiming “Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.” Though born at a particular moment in time, Jesus is Eternal and is Savior for all times, therefore, Savior of us all even now as we approach the New Year of 2010. Tonight we gather for this Eucharistic celebration on the happy occasion of the presentation of an ecclesiastical honor to Monsignor Edward J. Weisenburger, a priest of our Archdiocese. This occasion gives us an opportunity to reflect briefly on the relevance of the Church and its priesthood in the secular culture in which we live. Too often in our society, religion and faith are relegated to the private sphere where they lose their impact and purpose. The Sacred Scriptures and the teachings of the Church especially through the Second Vatican Council remind us of a more profound reality. Jesus Christ is the Center of the universe and of history. The revelation of God in the Word made flesh is not of special interest only to Christians. On the contrary, it expresses the final truth about God, a truth that all human persons have a right to know. At the same time, this event, the Word made flesh, expresses the final truth about the dignity and destiny of humanity, a truth that al people yearn to discover. Jesus Christ provides an answer to these fundamental human questions. In fact, the mystery and vocation of the human person can be discovered only in Christ. Jesus, the Eternal Son of God has, by His Incarnation, united Himself in a certain way to every single human person by taking our human flesh as His own. In His life and by His Paschal Mystery, Jesus restored to the human race the Divine Likeness lost by people’s sins. In Christ, therefore, the entire human race has been raised to an incomparable dignity. In and through Christ all human beings now have the opportunity for life everlasting. Truly, Christ, the Savior, has fully revealed what it means to be human. |