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Dear brothers, we too have been anointed by the Spirit and sent to continue the healing and liberating mission of Jesus. The headwinds can be strong and the obstacles many but when we allow the Lord to liberate us
from sin, from fear, from egotism, from attachments – then we are credible witnesses, for we have internalized the Gospel of freedom we preach.

God’s love exceeds anything we ever knew or could imagine, and it is revealed afresh this morning in this sacred liturgy as we re-enact Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, there to be tried, condemned, and crucified for us and for our salvation –This is God’s ultimate self-expenditure on our behalf: “To ransom us slaves, God gave away his Son” (cf. Exultet).

The sum of expertise and dedication gathered here is beyond reckoning. Thank you for your love for the Lord, for his Church, and for the young people and families whom you serve and form in faith, virtue, knowledge, and generosity to those in need.

Not all of us are called to heroic discipleship like Ignatius, but each of us is called to holiness and to some work God that God has entrusted to no one else.

The Lord, who alone has power over life and death, responds, not by immediately performing a miracle but by deepening Martha’s faith, and then by lamenting the death of his friend – for death was never meant to be a part of his heavenly Father’s plan.

Let none of us (myself included) ever take the Lord for granted. He is not merely a prophet, nor merely a man wiser than the rest of men, but the Incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh, the Crucified Lord, whose truth we cannot fully fathom and whose love exceeds imagination. To know him, even somewhat, brings joy and consolation.

Long before the founding of the United States, Maryland was an early experiment in religious toleration .That experiment was imperfect and fragile, but it planted a seed that faith and freedom need not be enemies.