BRIDGEPORT—It’s not enough to profess our faith, we must also become “confessors” of faith who give our life to its truths and let its light shine into our thoughts and actions,” said Bishop Frank J. Caggiano in his online Sunday Mass from the Catholic Center.
The bishop offered a powerful reflection on the reasons Catholics recite The Creed at Mass, and he urged all to pay closer attention to the prayer in which we profess our Catholic faith together.
The bishop said the Creed reminds us that “It is important to profess our faith as a community.”
His homily was based on the Gospel of Matthew 16:13-20, “15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”16 Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The bishop said that praying the Creed is an “ancient tradition echoed in the Church since the 4th century” and that it “binds the Catholic family together through space and time.”
He said that Peter’s confession is a “moment of inspiration that could only come from God the Father,” and that Peter may not have fully understood what he was saying, but he had the faith to believe it.
“For this reason God makes him cornerstone of the Apostolic Church,” yet he does not absolve him of the need to suffer and to die, he said.
“The Lord reminds him that all those who profess faith must also confess their life to Christ for faith to make a difference,” he said, adding that faith has its “cost” for all of us as it challenges our comforts, political opinions and status.
The bishop said that in “the mediocre, politically correct world in which live,” we should not get comfortable with the status quo, but always be careful to “take to heart” what the gospel is asking.
“To confess one’s faith is to embrace the suffering that comes with the profession of faith,” the bishop said, noting that true witness brings a strength that can transform our life and the lives of others.
“In the coming weeks, let’s take a hard look at all of our lives with family, friends, neighbors… and in the public square…” and ask the Lord “to shed light into the shadows and into the parts of our life that are not professing our faith,” he said.
The bishop said that even though we all suffer from human frailty, we should not give up hope if we fall short, because we can “turn to the Lord, and ask His mercy.”
In the long history of the Church it has called on people of all ages and stations in life “to become confessors of faith when they suffered mightily for what they believed in. They confessed with the integrity of their life,” he said.
“ I ask you about to profess our Catholic faith—are we ready to confess it?,” he said before leading the Creed.
Following Mass the bishop invited all to join in the weekly “Conversation on Race” to address the sin of racism in our midst and to work for equality.
Conversations about Race: The webinar series, features talks by teachers and pastoral ministers, began on July 30 will run through September 3. The talks are live-streamed at 1 pm each Thursday and then rebroadcast at 7 pm each evening, with a question and answer sessions moderated by a member of the diocesan ad hoc committee against racism. (To view a recording of previous webinars, visit this page and click “previous webinars: https://formationreimagined.org/events-home/.)
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.
