Dinner With a Football Star
My name is Bishop Edward Burns. I am the Bishop of the Diocese of Dallas. I oversee the 77 parishes spread across nine counties in North Texas. Across those parishes, we have about 185 priests, a large number of deacons, and 1.4 million Catholics. It is a joy to be here at Mary Immaculate celebrating this confirmation.
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And right now, Pittsburgh is the site of the NFL Draft. We in Pittsburgh love our football, so we are all excited about that.
A number of years ago, our Catholic Bowl brought an NFL superstar in as grand marshal. The Catholic Bowl featured six Catholic high schools playing each other in football, with teams from Little Rock, Oklahoma, Houston, Fort Worth, and Dallas. The grand marshal that year was Rocky Bleier of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was my hero growing up, watching those Super Bowls.
The night before the big games, we went out for dinner. We were talking all things Steelers, all things football, when he turned to me. He knew I was from Pittsburgh, though we had never met before. He looked at me and said, “So Bishop, what brought you to Dallas?”
I said, “What brought me to Dallas? The Pope.”
It was the Holy Father who named me Bishop of this diocese. Before coming to Dallas, Pope Benedict XVI appointed me Bishop of Juneau, Alaska in 2009. I served in Alaska for seven years, and there are some days here in Texas when I wish a little of that Alaska weather would come down.
About nine years ago, Pope Francis appointed me Bishop of Dallas. I felt for all of you, because the previous Bishop, Bishop Farrell, was named a Cardinal and sent to the Vatican. And what a joy it was to learn that he later became the Camerlengo. He oversaw the Vatican and was responsible for all the details surrounding Pope Francis’ funeral. He made Dallas proud. But after he left, you were waiting for your new Bishop, and one day you learned he was coming from Alaska. And sure enough, here I am.
The Appointment of Bishops and the Unbroken Chain of Apostolic Succession
The point I want to make is this. I came to you, Bishop Farrell came to you, and every Bishop before us came to you through the appointment of the Pope. The Pope is the successor of St. Peter.
It was to Peter that Jesus said, “Peter, you are rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it.” Peter was appointed head of the apostles. And recognizing the need to pass on that authority to the next generation, the apostles laid their hands on the heads of the men they chose to carry the authority of the Church forward. That is called apostolic succession.
That laying on of hands, my friends, has never been broken.
Rejoice with me today, because this very morning I ordained six men to the diaconate. They are preparing for the priesthood, God willing, next year. And God willing, I will ordain them again to the priesthood through the imposition of hands.
When I was ordained a bishop, I was ordained by a bishop who was ordained by a bishop who was ordained by St. John Paul II, who was ordained by an archbishop in Kyiv. And that line goes all the way back to Jesus Christ. It has never been broken. The men ordained this morning received that same unbroken succession through the imposition of hands. That connection matters because this is the church established by Jesus Christ.
Why Are We Catholic?
So why are we Catholic? We are Catholic because we want to stay connected to Jesus Christ.
I was telling Father Alphonse that when you drive here, you pass a lot of churches before you arrive at Mary Immaculate. It seems like there is a church on every corner around here. And the question comes, especially for young people: why are we going to this corner and not some other corner?
Because we want to be part of the church established by Jesus Christ.
And going even deeper, we find in John’s Gospel that Jesus said to his disciples, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you will not have life in me. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “This is my body.” Then he took the cup filled with wine, said the blessing, and said, “This is the cup of my blood.” And he gave us a new commandment: “Do this in memory of me.”
So every time we gather for Mass, we celebrate the Eucharist. And in celebrating the Eucharist, we recognize that it is his body, it is his blood, it is the cup of salvation that we participate in.
You can ask other Christian communities whether the communion they celebrate is actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Even the leaders of those communities will tell you, “No, it is a commemoration of the Last Supper. It is a memorial meal.” For us, we know that the saints gave their lives for the Eucharist. The martyrs shed their blood for Jesus present in the Eucharist. Jesus gave us a new and everlasting covenant in his body and his blood.
That is why we are Catholic. We are Catholic because we want to stay connected to the church established by Jesus Christ.
Go Ahead and Google It
Now, you might be sitting there thinking, “Well, this is the Bishop speaking. The Bishop is a little biased.” Fair enough. So forget the Bishop for a moment.
Go home and Google it.
Ask Google: “Who started the Catholic Church?” Do not do it now. Put the phones away. Do it later, and then pray about what you find.
And while you are at it, find the name of any other Christian community and search: “Who founded” followed by that community’s name. You will find a person’s name every time. But when you search who founded the Catholic Church, you will find that it is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
We are Catholic because we want to stay connected to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are Catholic because he called this church to be his body in the world. And we cherish the fact that we are his disciples today. We cherish the fact that he continues to give of himself so that we can be strong.
A Call to Use the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Today, those of you stepping forward will receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those sevenfold gifts will lie dormant in you until you use them, until you exercise them.
I say to you: use them.
We need strong disciples of Jesus Christ today, now more than ever. A faithful disciple reflects his love, his compassion, his mercy, his forgiveness. A faithful disciple reflects the one we follow, the way, the truth, and the life.
And let me be honest with you. It is not easy being Christian in this world. It is not easy being Catholic. That is why our deacon proclaimed from the Gospel the words Jesus spoke to his disciples: “If they are going to persecute me, they are going to persecute you also.” If you speak the words of truth, if you speak the words of the Gospel, be prepared. In today’s world, in today’s society, that will invite persecution.
As your shepherd and your Bishop, I say this to you: stay strong in the faith. Stay close to our Lord Jesus Christ. Know that in following him, you will have the fullness of life. Use the gifts of the Holy Spirit and use them to be strong disciples of Jesus Christ.
Those of you who are ready to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, if your faith makes you ready to receive the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit, I invite you now to stand and renew your baptismal resolutions.
