Read Archbishop Russell's homily from his July 7 inauguration liturgy

Editor's note: The following homily was given by Archbishop Paul F. Russell during his July 7 Liturgy of Welcome and Inauguration of Ministry at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Archbishop Pierre,
Archbishop Vigneron,
Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,
Deacons, Religious, Lay Faithful,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Dear Family and Friends:

Thank you so much for coming! This is a day of great joy!

“I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands. I will bring them back to their own country” (Ezekiel 34:12-13).

Whoever chose this reading has a good sense of humor.

Let me share with you a little story: Bishop Edmund Szoka, at that time Bishop of Gaylord, confirmed me. But when, after high school, the Lord gave me serious stirrings of a priestly vocation, I wanted to study in Boston, where my father’s family has roots, not where Gaylord was sending its seminarians at that time. 19-year-old men can be stubborn. Bishop Szoka was not pleased. On March 23, 1984, my seminary superiors assigned me to welcome visiting bishops to Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston. When Archbishop Szoka [who had been transferred from Gaylord to Detroit by that time] arrived, he recognized me immediately, grabbed me by my shirt, pulled me aside, and began tapping me on my breast bone – not his customary one finger tap, but a full hand tap – and said, “God speaks through the pastors of his church. As a pastor of the church, I am telling you that you should be in Michigan.“ Six years later, as a priest, when I concelebrated the Detroit priesthood ordinations on the vigil of the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, June 9, 1990, in this very cathedral, encountering Cardinal Szoka afterwards, he repeated, “I tell you, you should be in Michigan.“ Archbishop Vigneron, if you ever decide to open Cardinal Szoka’s cause for canonization, this might be included as his first miracle.

As Blessed Solanus Casey O.F.M.Cap. used to say: “Blessed be God in all his designs.”

I am so happy with Pope Francis’ decision to send me home – for indeed my feeling is one of coming home – and I look forward to work under Archbishop Vigneron’s authority and guidance, in communion of mind and heart, assisting him in whatever tasks he will give me, and to minister together with my brothers Bishop Hanchon, Bishop Cepeda, Bishop Fisher, Bishop Battersby, and the priests and deacons, religious sisters and brothers, consecrated persons and lay faithful of this Archdiocese. I look forward to sharing your joys and sorrows, your hopes and challenges. I look forward to learning from you and getting to know you.

In the prayer Jesus offers to the Father on the eve of his suffering and death, [a portion of] which we just heard in today’s gospel, Jesus gives us a glimpse into the inner life of God, his relationship with us, and our relationship with one another.

Jesus is in the Father.

Jesus shares that unity with us.

God’s unity is the source of our unity.

Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. “You, Father, are in me, and I in you,” Jesus prays. The inner life of God is characterized by a profound unity which is beyond human experience.

The 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (whose tomb is in Konya, Turkey, the Iconium of the Acts of the Apostles where St. Paul visited) wrote: “You think because you understand ’one’, you must also understand ‘two’, because one and one make two. But you must also understand ‘and’.”

God is One in Three and Three in One, as revealed by Jesus. To paraphrase Rūmī’s thought: “You think because you understand ’one’, you must also understand ‘three’, because one and one and one make three. But you must also understand ‘and’.” When we pray the Sign of the Cross, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” perhaps we focus more easily on the words, “Father,” “Son,” “Spirit,” but the word “and” has equal weight. En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. La palabra "y" es solo una chiquitita letra hacia el final del alfabeto, pero es tan importante como lo que conecta. The prayer of Jesus teaches us that God is profound unity.

Jesus is deeply aware of the Father’s love and lives in that love. “You loved me before the foundation of the world.” Because we are united with Jesus, we are caught up into God’s unity. Because we are united with Jesus, we are caught up into God’s love. A través de Jesús, compartimos la unidad de Dios. A través de Jesús, compartimos el amor de Dios. “I have made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” The Father’s love for Jesus, a love beyond comprehension, is the Father’s love for us and is the foundation of our being.

The description of pasturing in the first reading speaks of God’s love. “I myself will pasture my sheep. I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal.”

God’s love is unconditional and infinite, without limit. Unless we really know God’s love, not as an idea, but as an experience, as a reality in our lives, it is impossible to make spiritual progress.

In the second reading for this coming Sunday, Colossians 1:15-20, we hear, “Christ Jesus is the image – the icon – of the invisible God.” Jesus is the image of the Father‘s love. Jesus reveals to us the open heart of God. What Jesus suffered on the cross will make no difference in our own life, it will not transform us, until Jesus’ love becomes a personal experience. Jesus longs for this. He thirsts for this. When we – you and me – come to experience Jesus’ love, a love he demonstrated even to the point of death, it breaks the power of sin. A condemnation of what is bad will not make what is good to grow. But when we cultivate what is positive, it displaces what is negative. The positive gives us energy to change. This is why when we try to follow Jesus, it is important for our focus to be on the person of Jesus – “Eyes fixed on Jesus” – Archbishop Vigneron’s motto. If we focus on the person of Jesus, on the love in his heart, our hearts might be touched by his love, and we might be drawn to him. From the cross, we can hear Jesus ask us, “Do you understand how much you mean to me?” It does not matter if we cannot respond right away. But it is already a very good thing to allow ourselves to hear the question. When we come to sense what is there in his heart that is giving him the strength to suffer, then Jesus embraces us gratefully from the cross and our lives are transformed.

On the eve of his crucifixion and death, Jesus prays, “May they all be one.” He wants the unity lived in the Trinity to be shared by all those who seek to follow him. God’s unity is the source of our unity. Our society is marked by extreme individualism. We insist on our rights. But the paradox is that the more we seek to build up self, the more personal fulfillment eludes us. In contrast, the more we give of self, the more we find fulfillment. St. Francis of Assisi: “It is in giving that we receive and in dying that we are born to eternal life.

“For their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth” (Jn 17:16-19).

To be consecrated means to be set aside permanently for God. [Pope Benedict XVI’s catechesis of January 25, 2012:] “‘To consecrate’ therefore means ‘to transfer’ a reality – a person or a thing – to become the property of God. And two complementary aspects are present in this: on the one hand, removing them from ordinary things, ‘setting them apart’ from the context of personal human life so that they may be totally given to God; and on the other, this transferal into God’s sphere, has the very meaning of ‘sending’, of mission: precisely because he or she is given to God, the reality, the consecrated person, exists ‘for’ others, is given to others. Giving to God means no longer existing for oneself, but for everyone. Whoever, like Jesus, is set apart from the world and set apart for God with a view to a task is for this very reason, fully available to all [everyone in need]. For the disciples the task will be to continue Jesus’ mission, to be given to God and thereby to be on mission for all [to share Jesus’ message of peace and love, life and joy]. The Risen One, appearing to his disciples on Easter evening, was to say to them: ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you’ (Jn 20:21).”

“The central request of the priestly prayer of Jesus dedicated to his disciples of all epochs is that of the future unity of those who will believe in him. This unity is not a worldly product. It comes exclusively from the divine unity and reaches us from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Jesus invokes a gift that comes from Heaven and has its effect — real and perceptible — on earth. He prays ‘that they may all be one; even as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me’ (Jn 17:21).”

“Christian unity, on the one hand, is a secret reality that is in the heart of believers. But, at the same time, it must appear with full clarity in history, it must appear so that the world may believe, it has a very practical and concrete purpose, it must appear so that all may really be one. The unity of future disciples, in being united with Jesus— whom the Father sent into the world — is also the original source of the efficacy of the Christian mission in the world.” When our unity is evident, then our testimony to Jesus is coherent.

Thank you once again for your presence here today. On the day I was consecrated bishop, a little over 6 years ago, I dedicated my ministry to the Blessed Virgin Mary and placed myself and my ministry under her guidance and protection. Please pray for me and indeed for all your bishops and priests, that we can truly be shepherds in the image and likeness of Jesus, according to his heart.