The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, November 24, at St. Augustine
Okay, boys and girls, why don’t you come up? Who wants to come up? Come on up.
Make yourselves comfortable.
Yeah, we have a carpet now. Isn’t it nice? Yes. No, come a little closer. Come closer.
Come closer. Come here. Come, come, come, come, come. Perfect, perfect, perfect. First of all, who’s excited about Thanksgiving?
Raise your hand. Who’s ready for Thanksgiving? Raise your hand. Oh, they all are. I won’t ask back there.
I won’t ask. Okay, boys and girls, I have a question to ask you. Does everybody have a place? Okay. What does a king or a queen wear on their heads?
Tell me. A crown. Absolutely. And can you describe what a crown would look like, you think? Tell me.
Yeah, it’s golden. Sure. And what else do you think it would have? What else? Diamonds and jewels and…
Exactly. So it’s very, very special and costs an awful lot of money. Where do you think? What is it called? The seat where a king or queen sits.
What is it called? A throne. Excellent. And what do you think a throne is made of? Tell me.
Yeah, what is it made of? You think? Is it special? It’s special. Do you think it’s made of special things like gold maybe, or jewels or silver?
Would you like a throne? Yes. Now, you know, boys and girls, also, kings and queens have many privileges. Not only because they wear crowns that are very precious and they sit on the throne because they rule over a kingdom. But do you know that if I were a king, like the king of England, when you got up at the end of my homily and walked down those stairs, if you turned around and showed your back to me, you would be arrested because it’s illegal to turn your back to the king or queen because they are considered so special.
And of course, kings and queens through the centuries have led armies and navies. They’ve sent countries into battle. Of course, they don’t fight. They send everybody else to fight. So they are very special people.
Now, boys and girls, you do know that there’s another type of crown, A crown that is worn by only one who is the king.
Would you like to see it?
No.
This is the crown of the king. All things. What does it look like to you? What is it made of? Tell me.
It’s made of wood. It’s made of sticks. It’s made of thorns. And they come from bushes that. In the Holy Land, there are bushes everywhere with this.
This is not made of gold or silver. And our Lord Jesus wore this crown for a reason, which I’ll mention in a second. But what was His Throne, do you think? What was His throne? Where was Jesus born?
Tell me. In. No, no, not in. Yeah. What?
What’s. What town? What town starts with a B? Bethlehem. And where was He born?
In a hotel? In a hospital? In a resort? Where was he born? In a barn?
In a stable. So what was His throne? A trough where animals would eat straw. That was where the king was booked. And of course, He never said you couldn’t turn your back on Him.
Actually, He let people slap him on His way to die. AndHe didn’t have armies of soldiers and sailors. He had armies of angels who proclaimed His birth. You see, boys and girls, this crown tells us that there is a king unlike any other king. Because He came not to show power or wealth or privilege.
He came to love us. And He wore this crown because He loves us. He loves you. Not just us. He loves you.
And He died wearing this. So that you, like me, might have our sins forgiven and come to the glory of eternal life. I would have you touch this, except I’m afraid it will cut your hand because it has already cut mine last year. But you could imagine what this would be like if I took my miter off and put this on my head.
And the sacrifice it would take. Our king loves you in a way I could never describe. That is why we honor Him. So now the question is, what does our King want from us? Does He want gold, you, silver, jewels?
Will he arrest you if you turn your back on Him? No. But what does He want? Read this bag. What does He want?
Who can read this bag? First one. First read the first line. Tell me, what’s it say? Be kind.
Be kind. That is, to love one another as He loved us. What’s the second one? Tell me. Be good.
Do good. And what does that mean, boys and girls? What does that mean? Tell me. I’m sorry.
Yes, of course. Good. What else does it mean? Can you tell? To do good.
What does that mean? Give me an example of doing good.
Help an old lady cross the street. And even an old man cross the street. Good. What else? Tell me.
To be respectful to the people around you. Very good. Even if you don’t agree with the people. Tell me, what else?
Empty out the dishwasher. What a great idea. What else? Two.
With your heart.
Exactly. And what else?
A typical task to do, you see, boys and girls? Because what did our Lord do? He was the king, right? And He walked with people when they were sick. He ate with His apostles.
He healed those who were blind, those who couldn’t walk. There was no place the Lord would not do. Good. And what’s the last word? Let’s say it together.
What’s the word? One more time. And when do we say Amen? When we are praying.
Because our King doesn’t want a distance. He wants to be with us. He wants to be close to you. You know the king is right next to you. Now, in spirit, He’s in your heart, He’s in your mind, He’s in your soul.
And every time we pray, we acknowledge it, we recognize it. And we say thank you to Him for being such a loving and merciful king. You see, boys and girls, the lesson for today is this. We have a king who’s not afraid to love us, no matter what the cost is. And He asks us to love one another in the exact same way.
You see, my dear friends, today is the story of the two crowns. The two kings. The kings and queens of this earth and all that is represented by them and the king who is the shepherd of love. And today we are reminded that only one king rules.
The question you and I need to ask is, to whom have you and I given our allegiance?
Amen to that. Boys and girls, you were great today. Thank you for coming up. Why don’t you go back to your seats and we can continue Holy Mass? Let’s give our boys and girls a round of applause, shall we?
