LISBON — At World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, on Friday, August 4, 2023, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, USA (AMS), and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), implored the faithful to “delve more deeply into the mystery of divine love” to animate that same love in their daily lives. His Excellency preached the homily in a Mass for some 500 English-speaking pilgrims at the Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation (Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Encarnação).
Here follows the complete text of Archbishop Broglio’s homily:
“In my current ministry as the Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, I often visit the Academies and training bases. On those occasions you hear many confessions. People are at a transition point in their lives. They are beginning something new and often find themselves separated from family for the first time in their lives.
“It is a great moment to examine where you are and where you hope to be. Yesterday Pope Francis spoke about the universal call by Christ, but He never leaves us the same. He always calls us to the next level and to a deeper experience of Him.
“The first reading presents the Liturgical cycle of the Chosen People which offered a measure of time—measure of life. It was a way to relive the majestic experience of the presence of God who liberated the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt and guided them step by step through the desert to the conquest of the Promised Land.
“The history was normative for them and illustrated a way of life, an appreciation that life does not end with death, and began to orient them to growth in their relationship with Almighty God. Our ritual helps us to do the same. A moment such a World Youth Day invites us to celebrate our faith, to live it more intensely, and to experience in a very personal way the presence of God. Our liturgical year serves the same purpose. It invites us to relive the experience of our faith more intensely so that we might grow in His love.
“We need a challenge, an invitation, or an intense moment of the experience of God to grow. Otherwise we run the risk of the dryness of routine, the attraction of false gods, and the dictatorship of relativism. The Old Testament teaches us that danger on every page. In the New Testament we have a classic example. We know Him, He is the carpenter’s son, what can He tell us?
“The townspeople of Nazareth stopped there and missed a precious encounter with the Son of God. They missed a chance for growth. They did not allow WYD to change them. The Lord calls us continually to take advantage of the opportunities He sets before us, but we can also react like the folk in Nazareth and miss the opportunity that is held out to us.
“The late Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that “We have come to believe in God’s love. In these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his or her life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Benedict XVI, Deus Carita Est, 23.XII.05.)
“Did we not just celebrate that encounter in the sacrament of penance? Do we not experience another encounter with the Lord when we join Him at the altar of the Cross to participate in His one saving act of love for us? Are we not nourished for the journey by our reception of His Body and Blood?
“It is so good that we gather on the Memorial of St. John Vianney, the patron of parish priests and we have experienced one of the primary fields of his great ministry, the confessional. People came from miles to confess to him and to be renewed in that encounter with Jesus Christ and he generously made himself available for hours every day to minister to them. This priest who barely made it out of the seminary is still remembered for his generous self-giving so that the experience of an encounter with the Risen Lord could be multiplied for those who desperately needed his ministry.
“You remember that this sacrament was the first gift of the Risen Lord when He breathed upon the Apostles on Easter Sunday night and gave them the power to forgive sins. He knew that we would need that gift for our pilgrimage through life to complete union with Him at the end of our pilgrimage.
“We need these solemn moments and these rich experiences of divine mercy, the joy of our faith, and the unity we share across the globe so that we can return to the demands of daily life refreshed and be ready to respond to any challenge. It is not always easy to practice our faith in ordinary situations. Sometimes we have to draw on the extraordinary to be able to put our faith into practice.
“Several years ago I was flying from Washington DC to Dallas, Texas. At a certain point I overheard the flight attendant mention to another passenger something about Louisville and I thought Louisville is not in my travel plans today. However, shortly thereafter this same attendant was speaking on the microphone to explain that the plane’s autopilot was not functioning properly and an emergency landing in Louisville was necessary.
“I remember looking at her face. She was not a young, new member of the team, but a seasoned veteran and yet her face showed concern. I knew that this was a very serious situation as I looked at the emergency card in the seat and studied the brace position that we were all to assume.
“Would that I looked at my watch, because I would love to know how long we were in that position before the plane gently touched down, It seemed like an eternity. My first thoughts were very banal. What had I left undone? Could someone find my will? Then I realized that none of that mattered. All that was important on my part was an act of perfect contrition: to tell Almighty God that I was sorry for my sins because of their offense to His love for me. All that was necessary was an act of love to unite myself with His will.
“Obviously, I am still around to tell the tale, but it is possible to perceive the presence of God and remember the only thing necessary. The Lord continually calls us to know Him and to develop our experience of Him. That experience was extraordinary, but it was prepared by hundreds of more ordinary ones, rendered extraordinary because they are graced by Almighty God.
“The Chosen People observed the moments of the year as reminders of their history and celebrations of Divine Providence. We do the same thing with an invitation to deepen our knowledge and experience of the Lord Jesus through our remembering and celebrating the events of His birth, public life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection. The idea that we are loved never really grows old. It is an experience that deepens over time. We may not be at a military academy or boot camp, but these days of world celebration are a special invitation to be fortified and to delve more deeply into the mystery of divine love. Then we can animate our daily lives in that same love.”