by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace
As I begin the reflections on the Scriptures tonight, I first of all wish to thank all of you for inviting me to celebrate with you these 60 years of you being a parish family, 60 years of being part of the community of disciples of Jesus, being the light to the nations here in this area of the Archdiocese of Detroit. As we celebrate this, we find that first of all, we have to do as St. Paul suggests in our second lesson tonight, “Look back at those who laid the foundation,” as Paul said he had done for that church in Corinth.
He had laid the foundation, and he points out that if it’s going to be a community of disciples of Jesus, the foundation has to be Jesus. But then others come along and build on that foundation. That is what has gone on here now for these 60 years. The foundation was laid very well and has been built upon now for 60 years. All of us who are gathered here tonight and the members of the parish family who are not here — we are the ones that carry on the work of this community of disciples.
We thank God for those who have gone before us, but we also look to the challenge that is presented to us as we carry on this work and continue to build on that foundation which is Jesus. I think we will find as we reflect, first of all on the passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah, that we are being challenged to carry out the work of Jesus. When I read that passage from Isaiah, I am always reminded of an article that was published in The Boston Globe quite a few years ago, back in 1989.
It was published the day after the six Jesuits, who were on the faculty of the University of Central America, were dragged out of their rooms into the garden of their home, thrown on the ground (and also the two lay women who were hiding at their home), and were shot and killed, brutally. But the next day in The Boston Globe appeared the article that had been written by the rector of the university—Father Ignacio Ellacuría....