Addresses and Homilies

Introduction: The Theme

By now the theme of our Convention, “Building a Civilization of Love through Charity, Unity, & Fraternity,” has become very familiar to us all. Under the leadership of our Worthy Supreme Knight we, the Knights of Columbus family, are mobilizing in response to the call of Pope John Paul the Great and Pope Benedict XVI to construct a society where each human person is loved because his / her God-given dignity is respected and fostered from conception until natural death.

Constructing such a civilization, of course, is not the work of solely one person but instead requires team work. We are, after all, members of Christ’s Body, the Church. Brought together by the Holy Spirit we are – in the memorable words of St. Theresa of Avila, ‘the hands, the eyes, and the feet of Christ.’ Or to use a phrase very familiar to all Knights and their families, we are ‘the strong right arm of the Church.’

Even so, we can easily overlook some fellow members of the team. There is no lack of good will on our part …it’s only that we don’t see these co-workers anymore and, as the old saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” These unseen members we remember today at this celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They include our founder, the Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney, and all the saints and blessed of our Order. Many were martyrs, witnesses to the faith, in Mexico; another, a Catholic intellectual of extraordinary virtue; and all of them exemplars for leading a life of genuine love.

Our team of co-workers extends indeed to all the saints whom we invoked in the Litany of the Saints as Mass began. It further extends to our brother Knights and family members who have gone before us in faith during these past 126 years. They, even more than, we under the direct gaze of Christ, Christ the Good Shepherd, Christ our Hope, …who leads them and us to the fullness of life and love. Moreover, these co-workers are not a mere memory but rather, these deceased brothers and sisters are present to us through the love of Christ, ‘stronger than sin and more powerful than death.’ The Lord, therefore, gives us a cloud of witnesses, myriads of unseen co-cooperators in truth and love with whom we are to construct a civilization of love. The Lord also gives us the magnificent gift of his love, “love to the very end” as the shape, the means, and the substance for the civilization he wants us to construct. This takes the form of the created work, natural law, faith and reason, the family, and above all, the breathtaking love of God revealed in Christ who laid down his life for life for us as a gift to His Father and to ourselves. Let us not try to build a better world
without the help of these important co-workers and without the essential building materials the Lord supplies.

The Work To Be Done

Today’s reading from the Prophet Isaiah alerts us to the fact that building a civilization of love first requires a lot of demolition work. That work includes breaking down barriers created by human sinfulness, barriers that obscure God’s love and separate us from one another, and cause so much suffering on the face of the earth. As the hands, the eyes, and the feet of Christ, we are called to ‘destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web woven over all nations, and to wipe the tears from all faces.” Indeed, we are called to be co-operators with the Lord in destroying the culture of death by courageously building a culture of life.

Our holy founder, our saints and blessed, and all our beloved dead are unanimous in their witness: “Behold,” they say to us, “behold our God to whom we looked to save us!” Do not our beloved dead call out to us, begging and beseeching us to be alert and vigilant to the presence of the Good Shepherd in our midst and to the demands his supernatural love places upon us here and now?

Those whose time on earth is ended pray for us who remain so that we might be prepared to welcome the Son of Man when he appears as an unborn child, or as the world’s children in need of loving homes headed by a husband and wife; or as the handicapped, victims of disaster, and so many others in need of love. Welcoming the Son of Man with eyes wide open means working hard to ensure that the political systems and regimes in our respective countries actively protect the God-given dignity of the vulnerable, the role of the family as traditionally understood, and true freedom of religion … and to do all this for the common good.

Through the example and prayers of those who have gone before us, and even through the further purification that some may be undergoing, they help focus our attention on Christ and strengthen us in our weakness. Truly, we are not alone, unless we chose to be.

Conclusion

If that be the case, is it not our duty to remember our beloved dead, to listen to them because we pray for them, to praise those recognized for their holiness and to seek the full joy of heaven for those who have loved us so?

From their place in eternity,may they open the eyes of our hearts to the Kingdom of Heaven, that Kingdom where Charity reigns supreme, that Kingdom upon which every just and loving society is ultimately based.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. May they rest in peace. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed,  through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.