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Bishop's Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent

March 23, 2025

(Elena Dijour / Shutterstock.com)

Homily of the Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu
[St. Ann Church, Kaneohe]

You may be aware that many dioceses in the Mainland are dealing with the closures of parishes, due to a lack of priests, and, more importantly, a lack of people.  This is a very painful process, especially for the parishioners who have come to love their own parishes.  Thanks be to God, we have not had to do this in the Diocese of Honolulu, with the exception of one small rural parish on Hawaii Island that is now closed.  However, what is happening on the Mainland should be a wake up call to all of us.  Jesus tells the people, “If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  Does the fact that we have not had to close parishes indicate that we are different from our Mainland brothers and sisters?  I do not think so!

One of the great faults of Catholics is that we are not very good at evangelization – that is, taking the Good News of Jesus OUT to those who have not yet heard of him or do not yet know and love him.  We have many programs to serve those who come to us, and we hope and pray they will come, but we do very little to reach out to others.  That is like being a fig tree that, year after year, bears little fruit.  In time, even with second chances, we will be cut down or will simply wither away for lack of attendance.  If there is anything for which we Catholics need to repent – change our thinking and our course of action – it is for our lack of attention to the missionary task that is the essence of the Church.

We are preparing for the 200^th anniversary of the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries in Hawaii.  In July, 1827, missionaries of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, arrived on these Hawaiian Islands to establish the Catholic faith.  Although the Native Hawaiians were a religious people, they had not really heard of Jesus Christ and the salvation he brings.  They had no idea about his loving Passion for us that caused him to lay down his life.  They had no notion that he had risen from the dead and was still present among us, especially in the sacraments, and most particularly in the Eucharist.  It was to that reality that these early missioners were sent, and they had to “start from scratch” to spread the faith.  And they did, thanks be to God, which is why we are here today.

But we have come to the point where Christianity is no longer the context in which our culture operates.  Instead of worshipping the true God, the I AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of whom Jesus is one of the three divine persons, we tend to worship ourselves and our own ways.  Too sophisticated to bow down before a golden calf, we now bow down before a golden mirror.  And we can see the consequences of this all around us in the incivility and competition that is so characteristic of our time.

But we who are gathered here have been set ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit, whom we have received in our Baptism and Confirmation.  This fire within us is meant to be as attractive and fascinating as the burning bush was to Moses.  It is the fire that does not consume but that sends us out on mission, just as it did Moses, to free our culture from slavery to itself and liberate it to know and love the God who is love.

We are accompanying our catechumens to the celebration of Easter, when they will become full members of our Church through Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.  But who brought them to us?  How did they catch the fire of the faith?  Obviously, someone acted as a missionary to them, witnessing to Jesus and his love.  And so they bear good fruit in bringing in more people to love and serve the Lord.  This is a missionary spirit we are all called to cultivate in our own ways and in our own circles of influence.  We may feel unworthy, as Moses did, but we are still sent to be missionaries of God’s love.

Jesus gives us another chance to change our ways before we self-destruct into oblivion.  He wants us to bear abundant fruit, and he gives us all we need to do so.  Like the first missionaries to Hawaii, we may have to start from scratch as well.  But it is our task to repent of our inward focused attitude and commit ourselves to sharing the Good News of Jesus with all we meet.