Archbishop

Lent is now coming to its culmination; it is a reminder to us of our need of constant purification, so that we can more perfectly obey the commandment of following the example of the one who lowered himself for us; a time to repent, return, believe and renew ourselves in living according to our Christian dignity.

"How did this burning building move so many?" Archbishop Cordileone asks in a reflect on the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. "Sacred beauty has a power. It moves us because Beauty is not just a frill or a decoration, it is, along with Truth and Goodness, one of the three faces of God. Standing before the Rose Window, looking up at the awesome Gothic ceilings, praying with people around the world, we are reminded that, as human beings created in God’s image, we do not live by bread alone.  Notre Dame Cathedral calls out to us to remember that we have souls.  It reminds us that God has given us the capacity to create sacred beauty that has lasting value, which points us beyond this world alone."

St. John Vianney is a role model of priestly selflessness, a standard all priests and priests in training can look to in a vocation that risks discouragement as priests discover their own and others' shortcomings, Archbishop Cordileone says. He made the remarks in his homily at a votive Mass of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, March 1, 2019, St. Augustine Church, South San Francisco, with priests of the archdiocese in the presence of a relic of the incorruptible heart of St. John Vianney. Readings: 1 Jn 4:7-16; Ps 34; Jn 10:11-18.

A wise Biblical scholar once said: “The only secure foundation for a kingdom is sacrificial love.”  We hear a lot about “kingdom building” these days, and as long as we keep that in the abstract, it stays safe and comfortable for us.  But if we want to bring that down into the concrete, where it really makes a difference, we have to live it out in the specific communities of our day-to-day life, each according to his or her own vocation in life: family, parish, religious community, school, and so forth.  This is where sacrificial love ceases to be a pious platitude, and takes on flesh – the only way for a community to thrive.

'We sacrifice the most vulnerable life – in the womb – and so we end up destroying marriage," Archbishop Cordileone said. "That is the whole point of marriage, to welcome life into the world, to care and nourish and love that life so that the child might be able to know and be loved by the child's mother and father – the mother and father being connected to each other and together to the children they bring into the world. Marriage thus makes no more sense if the little ones are sacrificed to demons."