My homily given on the occasion of the final Mass celebrated at St. Wenceslaus Church, Baltimore, Maryland. The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Christ the King), Sunday, November 24, 2024.
Good morning my St. Wenceslaus church family! So we gather here at this moment and in this beautiful building, this church that has served so many people for so many years, and we are filled with many emotions. And I’m sure that I speak for you, as I feel myself, that one of those emotions is a definite sense of sadness.
We come together as a community of faith in this great St. Wenceslaus Church where many of us have been fed spiritually for so many years. With this in mind, I want to welcome in a special way our former parishioners, those associated with the parish in various ways, and of course our regular parishioners and guests who come here for this obviously bitter-sweet “celebration” of the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King. It has to be said that today we contemplate our past, as well as our own future, within the context of this difficult moment. The reality is we must “celebrate” together this final Mass in this space so sacred to all of us. But we have to do so, I think, with the eyes of faith, even though for many of us this has proven to be so very painful.
In the context of this painful reality, I think we can all attest to a truth we all know: that sometimes our faith can be tested greatly. We might at times feel angry with God. We might have doubts. We might be confused, or feel that there is no direction. No doubt we have all kinds of emotions, especially when we feel our faith is put to the test. And you know what? That’s okay: it’s okay to have those feelings.
As I contemplate these very human emotions, I’m compelled to think about our understanding of who Jesus himself was. He was both God and at the same time one of us! He shared in every aspect of our own common humanity with the exception of sin itself! Therefore, I believe we can say that one of the most wonderful things about Jesus is that he came into this world as one of us. Jesus, the Son of God, Jesus the Lord of the Universe, Christ the King, who we celebrate today was born into this world! And he was born in a stable in Bethlehem and laid in a manger, and thus from the beginning he joined himself to our own humble humanity, and of course he also shared the humility of his parents, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph, who like most of us were very unpretentious and ordinary people. They weren’t rich or famous. In fact they came from a little town called Nazareth which was in the middle of nowhere, and was said to count for nothing.
As we contemplate and celebrate Christ as Our King, we might ask: How could a king be born into poverty in a stable where there were the sounds, the filth, and the odors of animals? How could a king hail from the insignificant town of Nazareth? How could a king, then needing to accomplish his purpose on this earth, have really no place to call home? How could a king wander around with twelve simple men who, truth be told, weren’t the most stellar type of people in the world? How could a king fail to gain respect from others, even by his own people and in his home town? How could a king find himself so despised by the most important religious leaders of his time, those who were the chief priests and elders in the Holy City of Jerusalem? How could a king be forced to carry a cross and suffer and then die on that cross like a common criminal? It doesn’t make sense!
And with all of these questions in mind, we might even recall that from the cross, as Jesus suffered so greatly, he cried out: “Father, why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me?” Clearly Jesus knew what it meant to suffer and to experience the range of human emotions! And even now, he feels our pain too. From the perspective of his own humanity, Jesus feels our anger, our confusion, our doubt, and our lack of trust. Jesus himself knows all of these very real emotions! And yet, even so, we call him the Lord of the Universe and the King of Kings! And maybe that’s just the point!
When we think of kings we usually think of power, majesty, palaces, armies, royal robes, thrones, lots of gold and silver, and things like that. But that’s not at all as Jesus was. Not at all! Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea, and he went around preaching about the love of God and the forgiveness of sins. Jesus didn’t have a home to call his own, he didn’t have a palace or a castle as most kings do. Jesus was humble and he was a pilgrim. He was an itinerant, and he went from place to place preaching the Gospel and assuring the people of God’s love. This is the King we celebrate today.
In the Gospel today we hear that the “Jews,” the chief priests and religious elders of the temple handed Jesus over to Pilate, the Roman authority, who then asked him if he was a king. As a side note here we must remember those specific “Jews” highlighted in the Gospel were only those who were hypocritical and unfaithful members of the broader Jewish community. We should always remember that Joseph and Mary, and Jesus himself and all of the Apostles were Jewish. The negative language about “the Jews” in the Gospel really refers to those, for example, who allowed the Jerusalem temple to be turned into a market place where the poor were sinfully exploited for profit. And so we can then identify in some way with that Jesus who finds himself in opposition to the powerful, the hypocritical, and the faithless. He challenges them and he confronts them. And its for this reason that he suffers and dies for us!
So what might we learn from this as we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King? Especially at this time, on this day, and at this moment in this beautiful but soon to be closed Church of St. Wenceslaus?
I think that first of all we should remember that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, had no palace, had no castle, had no royal throne, had no armies, had no possessions; he was itinerant, and he went from place to place. They say he had nowhere to lay his head! I think we might be able to identify with that!
What then was the focus of Jesus’s ministry? We believe that Jesus came to give his life as a sacrifice for us, that he forgives our sins and saves us and that he restores us to a life that is eternal. We believe that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. He gave away everything in this life in order to give us the fullness of life!
You know, every time we come into this church, Saint Wenceslaus, or any other church, our focus as we celebrate the Mass is what happens on the altar. On the altar we place simple and very humble elements of bread and wine. Very humble elements. These things are not at all expensive! In fact, to be honest, we use very inexpensive church wine and hosts that don’t really cost that much! We place these very humble and simple elements on our altar as we remember the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, when he said to his Apostles and to us, this bread is my body given for you, this wine is my blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins. That’s it! On the altar in this church, and in every church where we celebrate the Mass, the Eucharist is the focal point of our faith and of our community. The focal point is not the building, and not even the people sitting next to us, really! Our focal point is the sacrifice Jesus offers for us in himself as the perfect sacrificial lamb for the forgiveness of our sins. And we remember that at the Last Supper Jesus also said “As I have done, so you must do!”
And what did Jesus do? He wondered the world, he preached the good news of the Gospel. He gave hope to those living in despair, he cured the sick of their illnesses, he forgive sinners, he gave people hope, and he promised new life and resurrection! We believe Jesus then fulfilled his promises by dying on the cross like a common criminal, by rising from the dead, by ascending into heaven, and then by sending us the Holy Spirit so that we might, in His Name, continue his work on earth.
As we gather today in this beautiful building, as we gaze once more at these beautiful windows, as we celebrate our history and our time together, we thank God we can share this moment with all of our wonderful parishioners, with so many former parishioners, and with all of our guests. But let’s be sure to keep our focus on that which is most important to us: we have come together to share the Eucharist in this space, and to thank our God for his never-ending presence among us! And the focus of our faith is something that can never be taken from us!
Here at St. Wenceslaus, a place I love dearly, I’d like to think that although we are in a sense being torn from this place, what’s most important to us is the message and promise of our Eucharistic faith! This has been true for many, many years at the altar in this church, and now going forward, surely will remain true for us at any altar to which we go, and around which we might gather with other believers to celebrate the Eucharist and our common faith. You know, on the altar we say “heaven meets earth,” and this is true of every altar where the Eucharist is celebrated. This tenant of our faith ought to give us great hope. Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, will always, although in simple and humble forms of bread and wine, be present to us, “body, blood, soul, and divinity” as we celebrate the Mass today, and also tomorrow in any church where we might find ourselves with members of our limitless church families!
Once again today, Jesus offers his body and blood to us, and he empowers us “to go out onto the other side of these church doors” and to live the Gospel. That is the most important thing to us. To live the Gospel! And frankly, we don’t need this building to do that! We need faith in our hearts and we need the confidence of the others who walk with us. Oh sure, our hearts are heavy today. But from an eternal perspective, we know that Jesus is always with us wherever we go. As we go forth today, let’s not forget that the altar in this church is exactly the same altar that’s found in every church. It’s the same Mass; it’s the same sacrifice; it’s the same promise; it offers us the same hope; it gives us the same life, and that my sisters and brothers is what is most important to us!
Today as we come to this place, perhaps for the final time, we give thanks to God for all of the people who have been blessed by this parish for so many, many, many years. We have appreciation for those original Bohemian immigrant people who more than one-hundred-fifty-years ago founded the first St. Wenceslaus Church on Central Avenue. We are grateful to those first parishioners who eventually moved to this location where they built a school and a church and established this beacon of hope in this Baltimore City community. We thank God the foundations of the parish enabled a tradition that continued with the inclusion of more recent and diverse cultural communities who came to these doors. Today we give thanks for the Redemptorists priests and brothers who served this parish for most of its history; we give thanks to the Franciscan Friars, including Fr. Peter Lyons, and hopefully myself, and of course we are grateful to the Josephite priests and brothers, who under the excellent leadership of Fr. Xavier have done such a superb job serving St. Wenceslaus and our sister Pastorate parishes of St. Francis Xavier and St. Ann for the past six years. And we must also note Fr. Xavier’s commitment to Pastorate development for the several years before he even became our Pastor at St. Wens! We are grateful to the School Sisters of Notre Dame who taught for many years in the school, and for the more recent presence of the Missionaries of Charity who have served the people in our community so well. We have so much for which to be thankful!
God wants us to know that even in the most difficult moments, even though we face doubts, anger, grief, distress, and perhaps a sense of despair. Whatever our emotions, Jesus understands us. He knows our pain. He desires to always walk with us, and he promises always to do so. Let’s gather around this Eucharistic altar today praising the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, in thanksgiving for all of the blessings we have received and let’s ask our Loving God to continue to bless all of our efforts in this world as we go forth from this place and out into the world spreading the Gospel of God’s love to all we meet.
“Go thee therefore and teach all nations! Go! Go! Go! Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost! Go! Go! Go!”
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! Amen.
Friar Timothy
