Bishop Paul's Homily for the Consecration of the New Church at Ruwais

Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.

Below is the full text of the homily delivered by Bishop Paul Hinder for the blessing of the newly constructed St. John the Baptist Catholic Church at Ruwais on 17 December 2021.

Readings: Nehemiah 8:2-4, 5-6, 8-10; Ephesians 2:19-22; Luke 19:1-10.
 

In the middle of the desert of the Arabian Peninsula, we are dedicating this new church to Saint John the Baptist. He goes well with this region. Is he not presented in the Bible as “ the voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord” (Mk 1:3). We heard this voice more than once during this time of Advent where John is prominently present in the liturgy.

The voice in the desert wants to be heard and lead our hearts to a conversion. It is a voice that wants to bring back our hearts to God. This house of God amidst the desert will be the place where we listen to the word of God with the same attention and joyful heart as the people did at the times of John the Baptist. In the first reading from the book of Nehemiah we were told how attentively the people listened to the book of the Law. In fact, it is the presence of God that will make this house holy. Once consecrated it requires from all of us respect and reverence. We come here not for entertainment but for prayer and adoration, for the teaching of the faith and the celebration of the sacraments. It will be a place where we praise God and where we cry out our pain at times of distress and sorrow.

This is the house, where Jesus wants to enter and to meet with us. The call Jesus addressed to Zacchaeus in today’s gospel is meant for each of us: “Come down, I must stay at your house today”. We become members of the community around Jesus not because we are particularly pious and virtuous; no, we become members of his Church, because he calls us and makes us holy with his presence. However, for making it happen, we too must “hurry down” from our hiding places of pride or of shame and receive Jesus “joyfully” as Zacchaeus did. It may well happen that other people remind our sinfulness like the people around Zacchaeus’ who complained that Jesus “ has gone to a sinner’s house”. It is true, we are a church of sinners, but through the presence and action of Jesus we are made holy: “Today, salvation has come to this house.” Once we have understood the call of Jesus and follow him, our lives change as we notice it in Zacchaeus who acted accordingly: “I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody, I will pay him back four times the amount.” We should always remain aware that we have been lost and then were found. We should never forget from where we come. Jesus made himself poor in order that we become rich. With Zacchaeus we are now in duty to bow down to the poor and the needy and share our material and spiritual riches.

The Church is not the community of a perfect and sinless elite, but the communion of those called by the Lord out from the darkness to the light. If Jesus invites himself to stay at the house of Zacchaeus, he shows that he is the true host. The others – including Zacchaeus – are the guests. Jesus at the difference of those who criticize him for this gesture, wants inclusion and not exclusion, he wants communion and not disunion. Jesus offers his friendship not to welldoers but to evildoers with the purpose that they be healed and reconciled by his mercy.

This leads us to the letter to the Ephesians we heard today. Once we enter with Jesus the house of Zacchaeus and find ourselves around the table, we “ are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: (we) are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household”. Although we may come from different corners of the world, speak different languages, behave according to our own culture, have different education and professional skills, here in the church we have a place where all can feel at home and share the same heavenly citizenship. We all “ are part of God’s household and part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone.” Every faithful, never mind his or her social position “is aligned on him”, Jesus Christ, and “all grow into one holy temple in the Lord”. He, Jesus Christ, uses us with all our differences as stones, makes us fitting, puts us together and builds us “ into a house, where God lives, in the Spirit”.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, building a church is not limited to the question of getting a piece of land, which graciously has been given to us by the rulers of this country. It is similarly not limited to the question of collecting the funds to realize the project which was made possible by the solidarity of the whole Vicariate of Southern Arabia. Something much more is needed. Think with gratitude about the countless people who worked hard, sweat in the heat of Arabia, lived under the threat of the pandemic, all those who “have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat” (Mt 20:12). At the very end, the real church is built by you, and exists in you as the living stones. Take care that you are fitting well, one to another in the love of Christ. Then you will continue to be a wonderful building amidst the desert and resound the voice of St John the Baptist and even more the voice of the Good Shepherd who tells you again: “ Come down … I must stay at your house today”. Amen.