60th Anniversary Mass of the Cathedral

Bishop Peter Muhich
Homily from the 60th Anniversary Mass of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
May 7, 2023

“Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do because I am going to the Father.”

During these Easter days, the Scriptures of course bring us back to the early days of the church. To those days, in fact, before Pentecost where the disciples are with the Lord, and he is with them. Although this Sunday, we have a passage actually from the Last Supper and St. John’s Gospel where Jesus begins to talk about his going to the father. His ascension. If you keep reading that passage, he begins to speak of another advocate, the Holy Spirit, as well, preparing them for his paschal mystery. That he will accomplish our salvation by his suffering, death, and resurrection and that that will be received by us because of his ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Our minds as we hear these passages and the readings from the Acts of the Apostles, which form the first reading every Sunday during the Easter season, bring us back to those early days of the church.

Of course we’re here this evening as well, remembering the first days of this cathedral and its life as the mother church of our diocese. It was dedicated 60 years ago as a new gathering place for God’s people, in the Diocese of Rapid City. A fitting home for our most prominent and significant and solemn Liturgies, so that the people of God can come together with their bishop and his priests and deacons, and celebrate Christ’s presence in our midst, especially in the awesome gift of the Eucharist but in the other sacraments as well. And we can be sent forth from this place to evangelize western South Dakota, to bring the good news of Jesus to those around us. 

Think of all the excitement when this place was being built. You know, we have some of that rekindled now with our building project here on these grounds as well, adding a social hall and space so we can be even more welcoming and can gather even more fittingly. This place has seen so many prayers, so many celebrations, and it will continue to house these celebrations and solemn Liturgies for many, many years to come. After all, we’re building “In Steel and Stone.” We’re not making a pole barn. We plan to be here for an awful long time. That’s the Catholic approach to building cathedrals, and I commend Father Christensen and his crew and parish leaders for doing such an effective job on this new building project and making it fit with the design of this beautiful cathedral. 

Again, this is all about Jesus Christ who has died, risen from the dead, present to his people now in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which forms the Church and the Church continuing his saving work in the world. “Whoever believes in me,” Lord says in the Gospel today, “will do the works that I do because I am going to the Father.” 

With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it is possible for us to continue Christ’s work, and in fact, we are commissioned with it. The apostles certainly sent out formally, but all disciples, to help make disciples of all the nations. 

The life of the church has seen all kinds of different circumstances and as we read in the Acts of the Apostles today, we have a picture of the life of the early church where we have a little bit of tension. You know, the Acts of the Apostles describes a time in the early church when there was a bit of conflict, and it does so several times. And we know up and down the history of the church that has been the case from time to time. Certainly, it documents the persecution from the outside of the church. The evil one trying to attack the church and stop if you will, her work although he cannot do so. The church has suffered attacks from the outside from its earliest days and continues to suffer much even to our own day. Christianity is, I think, the most persecuted religion in the world today, according to documentation. 

The evil one also works, sometimes, to thwart us from within. He’s not satisfied with those attacks from without, he tries his favorite tactic, which is division. You might know that the word for the evil one or devil in Greek is diablos, which means the divider, the scatterer. He likes to divide and scatter. Which is just the opposite of the movement of grace, which is communion bringing us together in the Lord. And in this passage from Acts chapter 6, we have a little bit of descension going on in the Church and we get to look at and see how the Church resolved this.

There’s a dispute between the Hellenists, we hear, and the Hebrews. Two different groups of disciples in the early church. The Hellenists would be gentile Christians who come out of a much more Greek leaning and influenced cultural background. And the Hebrews would be Jewish Christians, that were steeped in Jewish and liturgical tradition and cultural expression. They were at odds at times. In this case they were at odds because of a complaint that the daily distribution to widows in the church, who depended on support from outside, was being neglected for the Hellenists and their widows. 

So, the Church looks at a problem and a conflict in today’s first reading, and it’s interesting to examine how it resolves it. You have two different groups involved in the solution. First of all, the twelve. The apostles had been appointed by Christ himself and the church has always been apostolic, it’s one of its four signs, its structure, and leadership. Those 12 apostles were the intimate band of those around Jesus who shared most in his life and ministry. And the church is still led by the successors, the bishops who have the task of keeping and guarding the unity of the church and governing according to that principle of unity. 

Here with the authority that they have, it’s interesting that the 12 don’t resolve the conflict one-sidedly simply invoking their authority. Rather, they called together the community of believers, and they sought their insight and cooperation. They want the wisdom and experience of the community of the faithful, the collective wisdom of the body of Christ as a group. It is an interplay between the 12 and the community of disciples that the Holy Spirit uses to resolve this conflict.

This I would submit is a good example of synodality. Pope Francis is calling us to be a more synodal church.  Synodality really means walking together, listening to all voices. Not ignoring the authority of the ordained or Holy Father himself, but to gather the community more effectively together and hear all voices and collect all wisdom that we can.

Here, we have an example of that. The Apostles ask the community of disciples to select seven men who are reputable and spirit filled, and they accept the nominations coming forth from the people of God. Then, under their leadership, having shepherded that part of the process, lay hands on those seven chosen men and ordain them for ministry, the ministry table and taking care of the widows. In that space of an interplay between the 12 and the whole community of disciples, the Holy Spirit moves. Something new happens in the life of the Church. The Sacrament of Holy Orders unfolds with the diaconate coming into being.

So we have a picture of the life of the Church in our first reading today, with the assurance in the Gospel that we will continue to do the works that Jesus came to do. Conflict resolved by a beautiful and healthy interplay between the authority of the Apostles and the involvement of the community of disciples.

I hope in our planning process here in the diocese and in the days to come, as we together answer God’s call to build up the church in this time and place, that we can have that sort of interplay. I truly want to listen to you and your ideas so that we have the most collective wisdom possible as we contemplate how we are to move forward as a diocese. So, let us ask the Holy Spirit to move within us. Inspiring us in our day to continue to do the works of Christ and to announce the good news of his death and resurrection. That a new life is possible. The old life of sin and death doesn’t have to be the life we live. We can live a new life in Jesus, in the power of the Holy spirit, and bring that life to all those around us. 

The Lord has been good to us as a diocese. We have this building standing as a great memorial to the faith of those who go before us, and in our day, we take up that same task and if we’re open to the Holy Spirit, we will be able to do beautiful things for the Lord — proclaiming Jesus Christ, who has died and is risen was ascended but poured the Holy Spirit upon us so we might become the Body of Christ and continue his saving work until he returns.