HOMILY
Rite of Election – March 9, 2025
Seven weeks from this day – one week after the celebration of Easter and your baptisms and receptions into full-communion in the Church – a new saint will be canonized by Pope Francis. His name is Carlo Acutis. Maybe you are familiar with his story. His parents will be present to watch as their son is proclaimed the first millennial saint of the Catholic Church.
Carlo died in 2006 at the age of 15 from an acute and untreatable form of leukemia. During his brief life he didn’t have apparitions of Jesus or Mary, nor did he manifest the stigmata – the marks of Jesus’ crucifixion on his body – nor did he hear voices or do extraordinary things that often seem to characterize those unique individuals who are set apart by the Church as saints.
No! Carlo, as one writer reflected, “was just a boy. He was relatable and real to many.” He was computer savvy, studying computer science textbooks when he was nine years old and teaching himself computer programming and graphic design. He played soccer and basketball. He loved playing video games, with Super Mario and Pokeman among his favorites. He acted silly in home videos, played the saxophone and loved his dog.
By all accounts, he was an ordinary teenage boy – with one unique characteristic that set him apart from many. Carlo answered the call of Jesus that spoke to his heart from the time of his baptism. Everything he did was in Jesus, through Jesus and for Jesus!
To say that his life of faith was miraculous would not be an exaggeration. His parents would acknowledge that they were not especially devout. In fact, at times, Carlo would have to “drag” his family to Mass with him. How and why Carlo became so devout is anyone’s guess. I would remind us, however, that the same “call” given by God to Carlo has been extended to everyone of us who gather in our cathedral this day. Carlo just seems to have answered the call more definitively than most of us.
Here was a young man – a saint – who did the same things that many of us do every day. A young man, who despite all that he confronted in his short life, didn’t despair but struggled to make sense of the calling from God that he recognized within his life – a calling that prompted him to often say, “When you open your heart to God, your ordinary life becomes extraordinary.”
What a blessing that God calls all of us out of the ordinariness of our lives – as we are – to be his followers. … Your presence here today proclaims that you’ve heard God’s call and have chosen to respond. … And today, my sisters and brothers, and especially you, our catechumens and candidates, know that God is speaking to you just as he spoke to Carlo Acutis and countless other heroes of our Church for two millennia. … He’s calling your name today. … He’s saying that your life – with all its struggles and joys, with all its blessings and challenges – has a unique place and role to play within his plan.
This day, as never before, hear the words of Jesus that come to us from Saint John’s Gospel on the very night before he died, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”
My friends, today, you are called by God. Your name will be spoken. Your name will be heard. And your name will be written in the Book of the Elect. My sisters and brothers – dear catechumens and candidates – God places his hand on your shoulders today and chooses you to participate in his Kingdom. … The initiative is God’s. The necessary response is yours.
In today’s Gospel passage from Saint Luke, we hear of Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the desert. Implicit in this passage is the story of Jesus’ own life determining choices. Jesus confronts the temptations posed – says “Yes” to his calling by his Father in Heaven – and immediately goes forth to proclaim the Kingdom of God through service of the lives of God’s people entrusted to his care.
You, in turn, do today what all who have pledged their lives to Christ have done through the ages. You begin a journey of faith. In response to God’s call, you say yes to Christ. But in so doing, you not only affirm his presence in your life. You commit yourself to embrace his example of service and selfless love.
As it was for Jesus, the journey that you begin today will have its challenges. Yet, one thing is certain. Your election this day does not merely result in membership in an association that seeks to promote a certain cause. To the contrary, it is a reason to celebrate. As Pope Francis has said so often, being a Christian leads to “joy … the joy of faith, the joy of having encountered Jesus, the joy that only Jesus gives us, the joy that gives peace.”
May each of us, in whatever place along the journey of faith we find ourselves, give thanks to God this day for the gift of Jesus and his saving grace. … May you, our candidates for full communion in the Church, open your hearts to the Holy Spirit and to the power of Jesus who will fill your life through the Eucharist. … And may you, the Elect in our midst, boldly proclaim your faith in Jesus as you inscribe your names in the Book of the Elect and take you place with all your sisters and brothers – young and old – rich and poor – saints and sinners … who have been called by God and chosen as his own this day.
Previous Homilies 2025
Disabilities Mass – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord January 5, 2025