On Oct. 31, the historic mother church of America’s fourth largest diocese was the setting for the installation of its new archbishop, Richard G. Henning. The art and architecture of Boston’s Holy Cross Cathedral has inspired and informed the faith of worshippers for nearly a century and a half. Its impressive, attractive stained-glass windows particularly remind all inside of the strong faith and witness of a variety of holy men and women upon whose shoulders we stand — especially significant for an archdiocese rocked by the clergy sexual abuse crisis — and who remind us of our truest calling.
As the saints depicted in the church’s windows represented a living faith of another era, diverse cultures represented in the greater Boston area participated in the installation liturgy to express a contemporary reality.
But the most inspiring and encouraging witness of faith that day came from Boston’s new archbishop. Though new shepherds often will use the homily as a means of introducing themselves to their new flocks entrusted to his care, Henning spent no time talking about himself. But, rather significantly, he underscored to the local church — still reeling from the abuse crisis, now wrestling with a growing secularism and shrinking number of the faithful — that he is first and foremost a man of faith.
“I believe,” he began a captivating, off-the-cuff, yet carefully prepared and heartfelt, homily. Recognizing that many questions had been asked of him since his August appointment to Beantown, Henning told his new flock, “it seems to me that the most important thing that you, the people of this archdiocese, need to know about me is that I believe.”
Listening to the homily, it struck me that there couldn’t have been a better, more hopeful way to begin. Henning’s words indicated clearly what would lay at the heart of his time in Boston. But more importantly, the combination of such eloquence and spontaneity revealed something more significant — what appears to truly be an authentic, genuine, embodied, lived faith. Christ’s wisdom, “from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt 12:34), came to mind.
But Henning didn’t stop with describing the faith.
He spoke of the cost of discipleship: “I wonder if we believe these truly extraordinary and radical things, doesn’t that mean something? Doesn’t that require something? … if you and I stand up in church every Sunday and say, ‘I believe,’ then, we have to also know that faith, that belief, finds its true expression in the living of it.”
He spoke of what faith demands: “Faith is not just a list of beliefs. It’s not just a feeling. It is a whole life. It is an offering of ourselves to that heavenly father, united by the spirit to the heart of his son. It is ourselves trusting and giving ourselves over and trusting ourselves to his grace.”
He spoke of what matters most: “We are challenged, summoned, demanded, to be people of solidarity and compassion, of healing and hope, and above all, a people who live that love of Jesus Christ in our own lives and as a community. It is the greatest gift we can give to God and to one another.”
Toward the end of his homily, Henning laid bare the reality of what faith means in our daily lives: “whatever happens on any day, whatever comes, Jesus is still Lord. Whatever makes me fear, whatever tires me out, the Gospel is still true. Whatever may come, whatever suffering, whatever moments of darkness, the Eucharist is still real.”
And he concluded, “This is the foundation, is it not, that allows us to stand up and say, ‘I believe,’ for that same Lord Jesus, who is the face of the God who is love; he is not far off or long ago. He is here, he is now, and we will hear him speak to our hearts at this altar: ‘My body, given for you, my blood, poured out for you,’ no greater love than this than to lay down your life or a friend.”
Henning ended the homily quite memorably, saying, “All this I believe. What do you believe?” Then he invited the congregation to an impromptu recitation of the Nicene Creed: “Say it with me Boston. Stand up and say it with me: ‘I believe in one God’ …”
The memory of the goosebumps on my arms at the moment will stay with me for some time. Though, I’m sure, not as much as Henning’s faith will undoubtedly strengthen the faith of those he now shepherds.
As I left the church that day, and looked around at the stained-glass windows of so many saints, I thought of the wisdom of the late Cardinal Francis E. George: “The major task of the bishop is to look for the saints and encourage them.” Henning’s homily gave all the indications he’s equipped and ready for such a task in Boston.
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