BRIDGEPORT— Baptism is our pledge of allegiance to Christ, and it requires a life of service and love, said Bishop Frank J. Caggiano in his online Mass on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
“We Come here Sunday after Sunday to renew our pledge of allegiance to Christ, the King of all things,” said the Bishop on the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year before the beginning of Advent.
The bishop said the Gospel of Matthew (25: 31-46,) “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me,” conscripts us to a higher calling “to serve the one true king by serving others, to become his eyes, hands, and feet in the world.”
“We honor and serve the Lord by being his agent of change, hope, peace, forgiveness and love. If we fail to do that, we fail to honor him and our allegiance can become hollow,” he said.
The bishop began his homily by recalling that when he was a boy, he had “the great privilege” of being taught by the Dominican Sisters of Kentucky at St. Simon and Jude Parochial School in Brooklyn.
“The Sisters ran a tight ship and our day started the same way,” he said, noting that first thing every morning the students put their coats away, said morning prayer, and then turned to the American flag and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, “Words we know very well and have recited thousands of times.”
However, he said he didn’t begin to understand the full import of the pledge until he was older, and every evening on the TV news there was a report on the number of soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.
“I began to recognize the holy catechism that the pledge is, and what it means to those who have sworn their lives to protect the country and pay the ultimate price.”
The bishop said that allegiance is given to an authority that sustains us throughout our lives, and to honor that authority we are called to serve generously.
Likewise, he said that as we gather in prayer and worship, “We recognize that there is someone far more important to whom we must pledge our allegiance–to a king unlike any other who recognizes our poverty and suffering.”
However, It’s not good enough to give God just “the part of our lives that we want to give,” but to give him every aspect of our lives and to hold nothing back in our allegiance to Christ, he said.
“We honor Him through the sacraments, but do we speak about him and allow him to animate all we do in the ordinary moments of our life, so that the name of Christ is on our lips often?”
The bishop said that Jesus, who shared our humanity, invites us to share a place in his kingdom, and that he has led the way through his own death and resurrection.
“Baptism is our pledge of allegiance, the beginning of our road to discipleship as members of the kingdom of love and reconciliation by which we enter into the mystery of life,” he said.
Just as we pledge allegiance at civic and sporting events, we should not be afraid to tell the world we’re Christians and we owe Christ everything, the bishop said. We should be prepared to “serve him like the brave men and women in the armed forces, suffering and sacrificing to the point of giving our lives.”
In his weekly spiritual challenge, the bishop called for an examination of conscience as we approach Advent and urged us to ask ourselves a basic question, “As we end the year together, do we recognize the authority under which we live? How often do we acknowledge the authority of Christ over you and me?”
Before giving the final blessing Bishop Caggiano wished everyone “a blessed, happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving celebration. And as we begin the new liturgical year together next week, we pray for a year of blessing and healing that the pandemic will come to an end for us all.”
Bishop’s Online Mass: The Bishop’s Sunday Mass is released online every Sunday morning at 8 a.m. and available for replay throughout the day. To view the Bishop’s Sunday Mass, recorded and published weekly, click this link or visit the YouTube Mass Playlist.
For information on the Sunday Family Rosary every Sunday at 7:30 p.m. visit: https://formationreimagined.org/sundayfamilyrosary/
