Despite the frigid December weather, Archbishop Chaput observed that the second week of Advent is a great time to be ordained a bishop, since there are so many saints whose feasts are celebrated this week, including St. Ambrose -the mentor of St. Augustine, Pope St. Damasus, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Juan Diego. “I know that Bishop Isern already treasures these last two feasts in a special way, trusting in Mary who is always our mother, and seeking to be holy and simple in his service to the Gospel, as Juan Diego was,” he said.
Before focusing his homily on the example of St. Augustine, Archbishop Chaput touched on the day's Scripture readings, which he said tell us three things: “They tell us who we are. They tell us who God is. And they tell us what we need to do with the life we've been given.”
Giving the example of a married man, who “never fully knows who he is, until he's loved by a wife and children,” the archbishop broadened the analogy to include every human person. “Every person needs to love and be loved. In loving another person, we prove that the other person is worth loving. And likewise, those who love us show us the good in ourselves that we can't see, and so often don't believe.”
But we aren't just defined by human love, Chaput said. We are defined by the love of God. “It's his love that made us. It’s his love that sustains us... and with the tenderness of a father, He selects each one of us to be uniquely his own.” This radical love also defines who God is, Chaput continued. “God invites us to love as radically and unselfishly as He does, and through that love, to help him remake the world.” He noted, “the irony is that in giving ourselves to God, we find ourselves in him.”
This fatherly love takes on a special meaning in the role of the bishop as exhibited in the case of St. Augustine. A 1,600 year old example of the 'prodigal son' story, St. Augustine converted from paganism with his son, who died in his teens.
St. Augustine was “a brilliant scholar, and a tireless writer, preacher and defender of the Catholic faith against its enemies. But he became one of the greatest bishops in Christian history because he lived first and foremost as a father, moved by a father's love,” Chaput preached.