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| Installation Homily Given by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted Following is the prepared text from Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s homily at his Dec. 20 installation Mass at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral. "Hermanos y hermanas, ustedes ya no son extranjeros.” "Brothers and sisters, you are no longer strangers...” (Eph 2:19) Although my home state of Kansas is hundreds of miles away, with its rolling plains and frightening tornados made famous by the “The Wizard of Oz,” and its friendly atmosphere captured in the song “Home on the Range” and its people made especially dear to me by the past 56 months of serving Christ in the Diocese of Wichita, I come gladly and expectantly to the Church of the Diocese of Phoenix and to a new home in the American Southwest. Already, you have made the words of St. Paul come to life for me and for my family who are with me these days. We are no longer strangers, but truly brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you for welcoming us with open arms. It is very good to be here. The Lord brings me to Phoenix less than a week before that great day when Christians everywhere celebrate the birth of our Savior. For the first time in my 56 years of life, I am not dreaming of a white Christmas. What a joy it is to begin my ministry here during the last days of Advent, the season of hope, the season of the Incarnation, the season revealing God’s love through littleness and humility. How amazing this mystery that Advent enfolds! When the Son of God first emptied Himself to come among us and to take on human flesh. He did not come as a grown man, and not even as a teenager or a child. He came first as an unborn infant within Mary’s womb, living there for nine months as other babies do. Already within the womb of Mary, Jesus began to bring joy to others as the Prophecy of Isaiah had foretold (Cf. 52:7). After Mary conceived the Christ Child through the power of the Holy Spirit, she hastened to the hill country of Judah to assist her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth welcomed Mary and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb... at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” The nearness of God’s love in the Child Jesus caused John the Baptist to leap for joy even before he was born. Although Christ is stronger than evil and more powerful than death. He began to bring us joy and salvation, not with a show of force but in the most humble of ways. Herein lies the mystery of God’s self-emptying love. As St. Paul puts it (Phil 2:5-7), “Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness.” Christians around the world ponder again, this Christmas 2003, the wondrous mystery of God’s self-emptying love, a love revealed in littleness. We sing hymns of praise, as did the Angels in the fields near Bethlehem. We kneel and adore, as did the Magi before the newborn King. We renew our hope as we ponder a God whose love never weakens even as it becomes little. The love of Christ is renewing the face of the earth. And He who was born in Bethlehem is as truly present with us today in this Eucharist as He was present in Mary’s womb and as He was present in the manger at Bethlehem. When we encounter Jesus Christ, we encounter a love that has the power to transform us and our whole world. He brings us first the grace of conversion; then He draws us into a profound communion with the Triune God and with others in Him. And then, He gives us the grace to reach out in solidarity and service of others, to serve the most vulnerable and the forgotten, to strengthen the weak in faith and the weak in mind or body, and to bring glad tidings to the poor. This same love impels us to face the scandal of child abuse squarely and to combat it with honesty and determination. Christ makes Himself one with the littlest and the most wounded among us. Whatever we do to them we do to Christ. And whenever we reach out in humility, Christ is with us to bring healing and to strengthen hope. Permit me at this point to say how grateful to God I am for my own Mom and Dad and for my brothers and sisters. It is a great joy to have some of them here today in Phoenix, together with other relatives and friends. Thank you for your love that has never wavered but has always supported me in following Christ and in serving Him, wherever He has led me. I also want to extend a word of gratitude and welcome to my brother priests and bishops of the American Southwest and from Kansas, Nebraska and other parts. I deeply appreciate the opportunity last night to pray Vespers together with you, and especially to begin to get acquainted with my brother priests of the Diocese of Phoenix, who shall be my closest collaborators in the mission of this local Church. I offer fraternal greetings, too, to the deacons of the Diocese of Phoenix, who shoulder such an important part of our pastoral work, and to your wives. And I greet the men and women religious who have consecrated your lives to Christ through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Over the course of the upcoming weeks and months, I look forward to getting to know you and the invaluable ministry you fulfill in this beloved Diocese. I also greet the public officials of Arizona and the representatives from others churches and faith communities. I look forward to learning more about the ecumenical and inter-faith initiatives already underway in Arizona, especially those that assist the poor and the immigrants. With fraternal esteem I greet Cardinal Mahony, the Archbishop of Los Angeles. Thank you, Your Eminence, for gracing us with your presence. I greet, too, Bishop O’Brien, my predecessor here in Phoenix. As I begin my ministry of service, I am gratefully aware that the Lord has been at work in this Diocese through you, Bishop O’Brien, and through your ministry as a priest and then bishop for over 40 years. I offer fraternal greetings to Archbishop Sheehan. In my own name and on behalf of this entire Diocese, I extend heartfelt thanks to you for your ministry of healing, Archbishop Sheehan, and for the fresh hope the Lord has brought to Phoenix over the past six months through you, even as you carried on your ministry of service in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. I wish, too, to greet all of you, present in this Cathedral or by means of television, who form part of my new home in Arizona. By God’s design, I come as your brother in Christ. I desire to be a steward of hope and servant of unity. I believe that I shall be your good servant only to the degree that Jesus lives in me and that I allow Jesus Himself to act in me and through me. From the first year I was a priest, I have prayed each day a prayer composed by Brother Charles de Foucauld. Within that prayer are found these words: “Father, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your mil be done in me and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this, 0 Lord.” My brothers and sisters in Christ, I invite you to join me in this daily prayer and in the on-going effort to live these words in truth each day. I want, at this point, to greet our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters. Queridos hermanos y hermanas en Cristo, yo vengo a Phoenix como su hermano in Cristo, llamado por Dios a ser su siervo y su obispo. Vengo con la intención de seguir el ejemplo de San Juan Diego, el siervo fiel de la Virgen de Guadalupe, Patrona de las Americas. En las manos de la Morenita, yo pongo mi vida y mi deseo de ser su hijo fiel y un generoso servidor de su Hijo Jesucristo y su Evangelio. Vengo tambien con la intención de servir como el Padre Eusebio Kino, "el apostol de Sonora y Arizona" y como el Padre Francisco Garces, el Franciscano quien mostro un amor celoso para los Indies de esta region y quien les presento el Evangelio adaptandolo a su cultura. A todos ustedes y a sus familias, ofrezco un abrazo fraternal y pido sus oraciones para mí y mi ministerio entre ustedes. It is with deep gratitude to God for Pope John Paul II that I begin my ministry as a bishop in the Diocese of Phoenix. He has appointed me to serve here and I gladly do so. From the day of his election to the See of Peter he has been an inspiration to me. It is evident that, from the time he was a young man, he surrendered his life to Christ and to His Blessed Mother, and he found therein a power that could transform his own life and even the whole world. I wish to unite myself with him in his constant efforts to proclaim the Gospel to all the nations, to uphold the dignity and destiny of every human person, to promote the common good, to foster unity and reconciliation, and to lift up and support marriage and the family in its irreplaceable mission in society and the Church. I am sure that he would be delighted with the Gospel of this Installation Mass which begins with Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. Consecrate them in the truth.” Sixteen years ago, John Paul II was present in this very Cathedral of Ss. Simon and Jude. On that occasion he spoke words that still sound prophetic today. It was September 14, 1987, the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, and the Holy Father said:
Christian life finds its whole meaning in love, but love does not exist for us without effort, discipline and sacrifice in every aspect of our life. We are willing to give in proportion as we love, and when love is perfect the sacrifice is complete. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and the Son so loved us that He gave His life for our salvation.” When the Son of God became a tiny infant, the human family began to learn of the humility of God. But He humbled Himself even more by dying for us on the Cross. Through this humiliation, He restored our life; He redeemed the world. By His wounds we are healed. No disgrace that we suffer, no sorrow or humiliation that we endure, nothing can separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus (Cf. Romans 8:31-39). All we need to do is to open the door of our heart to Christ. He does the rest. He comes with His mercy. He reconciles us with the Father and with one another. He restores our dignity and gives us fresh hope. He fires us with courage to carry on His own mission of truth and mercy in the world. Two years prior to my ordination as a priest, in 1971, Pope Paul VI wrote in unforgettable terms about prayer. His words are recorded in his Apostolic Exhortation on Religious Life entitled Evangelica Testificatio, Gospel Witness. Since I was a seminarian studying in Rome at the time, I remember reading that document with great interest. In it, the pope who guided the Second Vatican Council to its conclusion and to its early implementation offered this key insight about the necessity of prayer (#42): "It is prayer that unites you to [God]. If you have lost the taste for prayer, you will regain the desire for it by returning humbly to its practice. Do not forget, moreover, the witness of history: faithfulness to prayer or its abandonment are the test of the vitality or decadence of the religious life.” What Pope Paul VI said about prayer in religious life holds true also for prayer in the family and prayer in our parishes, on the prairies and in the American Southwest. When we pray we open the door to Christ. We accept in faith the invitation of Jesus recorded in the last book of the Bible where He says (Rev. 3:19-20), “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him and he with me.” This is our Advent hope. This is why we pray. We believe Christ desires to draw near us, to dine in our home, to lead us on the path to holiness. He desires a close and loving relationship with every one of us. Since He is with us and He is for us, who can be against us? The future of the Church in Phoenix, the future of the Church in America, depends on Jesus Christ. The future is full of hope. Let us never be afraid to open the door to Christ.
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