CV NEWS FEED // In his homily for a Rite of Reception Mass bringing new Catholics into full communion with the Church, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski emphasized that all people are in need of ongoing conversion and growth in holiness, by continually turning from sin to Christ’s healing and forgiveness.
“This is important for all of us to remember,” the Archbishop said at St. Mary Cathedral on April 14. “There would be no reason to become a Catholic if we did not know that doing so was necessary for our salvation. And who would bother if they did not acknowledge themselves to be sinners: that is, that they needed to be saved.”
The Rite of Reception Mass, similar to the Easter Vigil, is for baptized Christians who are entering into full communion with the Catholic Church, renewing their baptismal promises, making a profession of the Catholic Faith, and receiving the sacraments of Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist.
Archbishop Wenski added that conversion is ongoing and that it is necessary to go to the sacrament of Confession regularly, imploring God’s Divine Mercy.
“Conversion to the Lord is not just a one-time thing: it is the project of our lives,” he said. “This life is our one-time chance to practice the faith until we get it right.”
He also spoke about the sacrament of Confirmation and its effects, which the new Catholics would be receiving shortly after the homily.
“The Church is holy because of the Spirit who guides her. The Holy Spirit sent by Jesus Christ makes the Church his living Body,” the archbishop continued:
Through the proclamation of the Word of God and the administration of the sacraments, that Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and through Jesus’ death and resurrection the Holy Spirit makes us, imperfect, sinful sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, into God’s sons and daughters by adoption.
The new Catholics were also asked to renew their baptismal promises, in which they said “yes” to God, and “no” to Satan, to his empty promises, and to sin.
This “yes” requires that the believer follow Christ wholeheartedly, Archbishop Wenski said:
To acknowledge Jesus as the Truth, the Way, and the Life means taking Jesus as the measure of all that we do – in embracing his Truth we reject what is contrary to that truth; in walking his Way, we do not take the many false turns that are presented to us; in living his Life, we undertake an adventure that is not be understood as a burden that limits us or deprives us of freedom but rather as a gift that gives us true joy and makes real freedom possible.
The 10 Commandments detail how to truly live out this “yes” to God, he said, adding that they “put forth a great vision of life and show us the way to true freedom, the freedom that allows us to love as Jesus loved.”
Keeping God’s commandments, living as a friend of Christ and a member of his Church, is how one grows in holiness over time, the archbishop explained: “Again, as John [the Evangelist] says, whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him.”
He added that through the sacrament of Confirmation, Catholics are assisted in living out this “yes” with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: piety, understanding, fortitude, knowledge, wisdom, counsel, and fear of the Lord.
“To be a Catholic Christian is not a burden; it is a gift,” Archbishop Wenski concluded:
Today, you are confirmed in that faith; today, you enter into full communion with the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ on the rock of Peter. You have seen the light of faith. As new Catholics, bring that faith and the hope that it inspires to others. Welcome home!
