Catholic Charities 40th Anniversary Homily by Most Reverend, Robert M.Coerver, Bishop of Lubbock

CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF LUBBOCK 40TH ANNIVERSARY MASS
November 16, 2024 - Christ the King Cathedral, Lubbock
Transcript of Homily by Most Reverend Robert M. Coerver, Bishop of Lubbock
I was thinking during the proclamation of the gospel, about the insistence. I think that perhaps your agency is well aware of the insistence of the friends at your door.
Providing Help. Creating Hope. Serving all People. We are dedicated to providing services that bolster & support the most vulnerable and most in need in our community: at risk families, the young, the elderly and immigrants. That my friends, is the ministry of Catholic Charities of Lubbock: help and hope for all, for forty years, and many more years to come.
For a special mass like this it is common for special readings to be chosen for the celebration, but I want to applaud the staff at Catholic Charities for their openness to the Holy Spirit in following the Church’s Lectionary Cycle. Throughout the church, the readings we just heard are being proclaimed all over the world - the readings already prescribed for Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time. Such openness, I would add, has been characterized by our Catholic Charities agency especially in current times.
Our Scripture Readings are very appropriate for our celebration here. In the reading from John’s Third Letter we have fleshed out by God’s inspired Word the very mission of our Catholic Charities. God’s word says, “… you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters, especially for strangers; …” Providing Help. Creating Hope. Serving all People.
God’s word goes on and says, “… they have testified to your love before the Church.” Well, I would add, not only before the Church, but throughout the service area of Catholic Charities Diocese of Lubbock. The agency has been known for virtually all of its forty-year history for the help provided to so many people. Through its direct client assistance offerings and recently formed partnership with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, its Family and Youth Success classes and workshops (and that certainly fits in with my stated priority for the Diocese of Lubbock - the priority on service to youth and families), its immigration assistance to help reunite families - so desperately needed today, and in days to come, the very noteworthy and acclaimed Parent Empowerment Program, the Kinship Navigation Program, its Resale Center on 34th Street, and its Community Nutrition and Wellness services, and so many other things that go unseen, and probably underappreciated.
During the COVID pandemic of unhappy memory, Catholic Charities is of happy memory to the local community of Lubbock as the go-to place for help. Providing Help, Creating Hope, Serving All People.
God’s Word pleads with us as we gather here today to look to the future; it tells us: “Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey.” And even says “… we ought to support such persons, …” Providing Help. Creating Hope. Serving All People.
In the gospel Jesus teaches an important principle pertinent to our gathering here today. Jesus tells a parable about persistence in prayer, that justice be done on behalf of and at the hands of God. As Church, we are beginning to enter into the Jubilee Year of 2025 as “Pilgrims of Hope.” Let us pray that the work of justice and charity which our Catholic Charities is about, will be a sign of hope for people on the pilgrim journey of life and faith in hope. Providing Help, Creating Hope, Serving All People. “… dedicated to providing services that bolster & support the most vulnerable & most in need in our community: at risk families, the young, the elderly and immigrants.”
Here at this table of the Lord’s Sacrifice, we are commissioned to become what we receive here: nothing less than the presence of Christ made real for others. Just as the presence of Christ is made real for others through the charitable work of Catholic Charities on behalf of justice for all people. We beg the Lord to bless us and to bless Catholic Charities as it goes about Providing Help, Creating Hope, Serving All People.