Bishop calls for ‘profound renewal’ in passionate homily at Summer Institute
"How can we rest when so many still do not know the Lord," asked Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC. (The Catholic Post/Jennifer Willems)
Bishop Daniel R. Jenky’s homily for the closing Mass of the Diocesan Summer Institute matched the fire of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as he challenged participants not to sit idly by when the world needs them to speak the truth.
“I am more and more convinced that today the Diocese of Peoria needs a spiritual conversion and a more profound renewal of all the transforming gifts of the Holy Spirit,” he said during the Mass for the Vigil of Pentecost at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.
“How can we rest when so many still do not know the Lord? How can we be passive when even many Catholics have fallen away from the True Faith? How can we be inactive when so many folks are hungry and naked, homeless and poor, sick and burdened by addictions or illness,” he said.
“How can we be passive when even many Catholics have fallen away from the True Faith? How can we be inactive when so many folks are hungry and naked, homeless and poor, sick and burdened by addictions or illness?” — Bishop Jenky
“Why do we allow judges and politicians to persecute the church, while they exempt themselves from the crimes of the state in its own institutions,” Bishop Jenky said. “Why do we fail to stand up and defend our faith when the right to life, when God’s plan for human sexuality, when the holiest things of our religion are so grossly and relentlessly mocked by Hollywood, on television and in the mass media?”
He wondered if people of faith have lost their capacity for righteous anger.
“If we want to really live our precious faith we must all seek a richer encounter with the Risen Christ and more fully embrace the power of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
“Filled with the Holy Spirit, our minds would be illuminated and our hearts would be enkindled, and our strength and energy would be unleashed for the glory of God and the service of neighbor,” Bishop Jenky told them.
What would happen if everyone present prayed for a new Pentecost?
“More than buildings would shake,” he assured them. “The whole world would be shaken down to its foundation” and we could bring the world to faith in Christ.
“We could be a church on fire for our glorious and risen Lord,” Bishop Jenky said.
