Last Friday evening, the Cathedral of St. Agnes was filled to overflowing with the recipients of the first St. Agnes medal accompanied by their pastors, families and friends. In this our Jubilee Year, the diocese established this medal as a way annually to recognize the “unsung heroes” of our parishes who have contributed so much to the life and witness of the 133 parishes that make up our diocese. Elsewhere in TLIC you can see more. But I wanted simply to tell one and all what a beautiful evening it was. There was a couple there celebrating their 68th wedding anniversary and another their golden jubilee. Grown children of recipients were so proud of their parents, and the youngest recipient could challenge anyone there for his commitment and dedication to his parish. I am grateful to God for this spiritually uplifting moment in our jubilee celebration. And I thank from my heart all those who made this prayer service and reception in our parish center such a heartwarming event. Following is my homily that evening:

Rabbi Jacob Neusner begins his book: “A Rabbi Talks With Jesus” by going up the mountain by the Sea of Galilee to listen to this sermon of the rabbi and master Jesus. As a young rabbi himself, he is fascinated by Jesus and listens approvingly as He speaks the beatitudes about poor in spirit, meekness, mercy, thirst for justice, being peacemakers. These are all in the Torah, the Law of Israel. But suddenly he is taken aback as Jesus says to his hearers, “And blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven.” The rabbi reacts: This is not in Torah. This is not the Law. This Jesus is setting himself up as more than Torah. He is basing his teaching on his own authority. And sadly he goes home because to him Jesus has gone beyond the Torah.

And he is right. For you and I know that is precisely what Jesus did because, as we know, He does have authority. He is more than the Torah. The rabbi gives obedience to a word, the word of Torah. You and I who hear Jesus and learn from Him and know Him respond by being obedient not to a word but to the Word, the Word of God made man. He is the Son of God who brings us His teaching and makes us His disciples. We hear the words of these beatitudes in a new key and with a new meaning because these invitations, which are incumbent on Jews as well as Christians, indeed on all upright human beings, these beatitudes have for us the deeper meaning that we do them in imitation of Jesus. We do them as a fulfillment of being His followers. We do them as members of His Body, the Body of Christ, His Church.

This Gospel brings to my mind another Gospel that has a particular meaning for us here on Long Island. Six years ago we lived together through the horror of September 11. A month after that day we gathered in the Nassau Coliseum to offer Mass for those who had died, for those who went to their rescue, for their families and for our beloved communities. That night I gave you that moment in the Gospel of John when Jesus gets up from table and proceeds to wash and kiss the feet of his disciples, telling them and us, “You call me Lord and Master and that is who I am. But if I, your Lord and Master, wash your feet, you are to wash one another’s feet.” In those days after 9/11, we did that. In those days of suffering, I saw the heroic virtue of so many.

Yet you who are gathered with me here tonight were already doing that in your parishes and in your communities. Your lives already were reflecting the call of Jesus to serve our brothers and sisters, especially the poor. You, like all the poor in spirit, know your need of God. You, by your lives and your generous commitments to our parishes, are among the meek and merciful, among those who thirst for justice and are peacemakers. And that is why this evening it is a grateful bishop gazing at so many extraordinary members of this Diocese of Rockville Centre who wants to thank you and give thanks to God for you, wants to call you to an ever deeper sense of who we are as Church, a Church that is made visible and credible by the witness of your lives and your good deeds. While we have 133 parishes, we are one Church, and every parish is a portion of this one Church. While there are many, many gifts and many forms of service and different workings, as Paul says, there is one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of us all.

You are the many parts of the one Body of Christ. You use the talents and gifts God gave you and place them at the service of our brothers and sisters. You do this as men and women of faith. You do that because the Master who teaches us with authority and calls to us with love is the One whose life strengthens our lives, whose spirit guides all our efforts to the goals He wants us all to attain.

This year we celebrate our golden jubilee as a diocese. For 50 years, my predecessors and I have been blessed to know the height and the depth, the length and the breadth of the richness of God’s goodness manifest in you, the People of God who pray and labor, who worship and celebrate His life, give and share with so many others the many blessings God has bestowed on us. St. Agnes watches over us today as she has for every day of our life as a diocese. We pray to her that she will protect and guide you and all whom you love. And she will! This young courageous virgin turned her back on the power and wealth and prestige of the Roman Empire because she had already embraced Christ as her only lover, as her master and Lord. Her martyrdom is the seed that helps our Church grow and flourish.
Every time you look at this medal you are about to receive, remember the virgin martyr who protects us and invoke her name. And every time I pray to her, I promise my prayer is for you, the wonderful people of this diocese, who embody the Sermon on the Mount, who imitate the Lord as you wash the feet of our brothers and sisters and who give a witness to the world that the world may believe.