Archbishop's Homily – Archbishop Paul Coakley | 2025 Discipleship Conference

Homily from Archbishop Paul Coakley during Mass at the 2025 Discipleship Conference for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. 

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Transcript

Light And The Call To Discipleship

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It got dark in here. But now it's light. Because you are the light of the world. So what a beautiful day it is to spend together here to celebrate the call to discipleship. The Lord's personal call to each one of us to draw close to him in friendship. Today the church is celebrating as an optional memorial, the memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who was a Jewish woman known as Edith Stein, who converted to the faith after having fallen into atheism and discovered the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila, and upon reading the life, the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila, came to faith in Jesus Christ, entered the church, and a few years later entered Carmel, devoting her life to seek the Lord in silence and contemplation as a member of the Discougred Order of the Lady of Carmel, Mount Carmel. This was at a time when Hitler was coming to power in Germany, and she fled Germany where she was from and found herself in the Netherlands, at a convent there, at a Carmel there. There it goes again. And uh she was arrested, and ultimately she was martyred. She gave her life and in a particular way, in a conscientious way, in a deliberate way. She gave her life as a Jewish woman, convert who had been gifted with the with the gift of faith, the grace of faith, gave her life for the salvation of her people, that they might come to know the Lord Jesus. And so I highlight that. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is Lord alone, therefore you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole mind, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. This prayer is even to this day part of every synagogue liturgy, every synagogue service, the call to faith, the call to worship God with one's whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. Jesus cites this great prayer of his own people, the Jewish people, at least twice in his ministry when asked what it would take to inherit the kingdom. He says, You know the commandments. And then the man who questions him says, I've kept all of those. What more is there? Jesus says, of course, you shall love the Lord with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, your neighbor as yourself. And if you've kept all of those, go sell what you have, give your money to the poor, come follow me. The right life of radical discipleship and conversion is given to us in essence in the great Shema, making the Lord the center of our lives, loving him with our whole being. This goes far beyond, doesn't it? The ritualistic, formalistic kind of faith that for many Christians and many believers is enough. But it's never enough because God wants all of us. He wants our whole heart, our whole mind, all of our strength. Are we able and willing to give that? Even if we would like to, we know that there is within each one of us some resistance. Because God not only created us and created us good and created the whole world and gifted it to our first parents as a paradise, but there was a rebellion, and we fell away into sin. We fell into the clutches of the evil one. This order was introduced into God's beautiful creation, and we were helpless to redeem ourselves. We were helpless to love the Lord in the way that He commanded that He be loved with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength because of sin. But God did not abandon us as we know to our sin. He promised a Savior already in the third chapter of the book of Genesis, right after our first parents fell into sin. And throughout the entire Hebrew scriptures, we read how through the law, through the prophets, through salvation history, God is preparing to send a savior to redeem us. And in the fullness of time, he sends Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, becoming one of us, like us in all things, but sin, that he might save us from death, that he might deliver us from the power of the evil one, that he might be our Savior. This is what we celebrate every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, the salvation that God has worked for us in Jesus Christ. The church honors every Saturday in a particular way, in a special mass, the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary alone was conceived without sin, preserved from the stain of original sin in view of the fact that she had been chosen and called by God to become the mother of his Son, our Savior, indeed the mother of God. Mary was preserved from sin, became the mother of God. She gave her full, wholehearted consent to the angel who asked her if she would be willing to be the mother of our Redeemer. We know the beautiful account that's given to us in St. Luke's gospel. Behold, she says, I am the handmaid of the Lord, but be it done to me according to your word. Mary alone was able to give that wholehearted response in faith that the Lord sought from our first parents. But they rejected him. God did not abandon their descendants. He found in Mary somebody who would cooperate with his plan for our salvation. So today we honor Mary as the mother of our Savior, as the first disciple, the Mary who alone was able to give that wholehearted response in faith and to love God with her whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to bring forth into the world its Savior and Redeemer, who came to rescue us from the power of sin and from the power of death. Today we give thanks in this Eucharist for the witness of Mary, of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and all of the saints, of course, including our own blessed Stanley Rother, and all who have gone before us, giving witness to the faith to which all of us are summoned as disciples of the Lord Jesus, to give ourselves wholeheartedly, as Saint Teresa Benedicta did, in allowing herself to be offered for the sake of her people, choosing to remain with them rather than flee for safety, much like Blessed Stanley, much like the saints of every age. So today, as we continue with this discipleship conference, we're giving these witnesses, which I highlight briefly in order to remind us that that same kind of faith and wholehearted love is the summons and the invitation to all of us who have responded to the call of discipleship, who've responded to the promises that were offered us in baptism. Perhaps we have not been faithful throughout our lives to the promises once made in baptism, but God does not give up on us. He continues to offer us the grace of repentance and the call to conversion, to learn to love Him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, that we might become not just in name, but in fact, beloved daughters and beloved sons of a heavenly Father who loves us so much that he spared not even his only begotten Son, who gave his life for us, because each one of us were so precious to the Father, as demonstrated by the love of his Son. The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us in baptism and confirmation. Let us pray as we celebrate this Eucharist today that the Lord would stir into flame that fire of the Holy Spirit who abides within us to enkindle in us a more wholehearted response in faith to the promises we made or were made for us in baptism, that we may learn to follow Jesus and give that wholehearted response of love, to love Him truly with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And to say with all of the saints, totus tuus egosum, I am totally yours, O Lord. Everything I have is yours, because everything has been given to us by you through your mercy, because you love us.