A Prophet for Our Time
By Bishop James Conley
Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time in Commemoration of the 80th Birthday of Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap
Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, Annapolis Maryland
September 28, 2024
Today’s Scriptures speak about the generosity of the Holy Spirit, bestowing gifts on those who are near the teacher, Moses and Jesus respectively, so it is fitting that all of us are gathered here in honor of one of the great teachers of our time. Each of us in our own way are beneficiaries of a grace that flowed from his ministry. Each of us is like Eldad and Medad in the Old Testament reading, and the unnamed person in today’s Gospel who cast out demons in Jesus’ name. Our ministries flow directly from one of the great prophets and teachers of our time and place: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput.
In the first reading, Moses was encouraged to stop Eldad and Medad from preaching because they were not part of the seventy elders. So, we see clericalism is not new; it seems to be almost hardwired into our fallen nature. In the Gospel reading, again we see a form of clericalism when the Apostles tried to stop someone from performing miracles in Jesus’ name.
Moses and Jesus both rejected the fear that often surrounds clericalism and opened wide the doors for the Holy Spirit to work through all the faithful. So it is with our friend, Archbishop Chaput.
If there was ever a modern leader in the Church who encouraged all the faithful to be led by the Holy Spirit, it was Archbishop Chaput. As I heard him say many times, “My job is to get out of the way of the Holy Spirit.” And so he did, big time. He welcomed priests, religious, and the laity to try new things, thinking outside the box, with the expectation that the Holy Spirit desires to bring new life to the Church and to make all things new through the creative work of all the faithful, lay and clerical alike.
After being named a bishop at the young age of forty-three in Rapid City, SD, less than ten years later in 1997, by God’s wisdom and providence, a young, Native American Franciscan was named the Archbishop of Denver in the wake of the extraordinary event of World Youth Day 1993. This decision by Saint John Paul II, guided by the Holy Spirit, has changed the Church, not just in Denver, and not just in the United States, but around the world.
The New Evangelization, which was a hallmark of John Paul the Great’s pontificate, was never more realized than in Denver, Colorado. Each of you is evidence of this truth. Today, on the occasion of Archbishop Chaput’s 80th birthday celebration, we remember his vast legacy: The lay apostolates, which continue to transform the world; the renewal of seminary life with the innovation of the spirituality year, now called the propaedeutic stage, which is a common part of seminary life, but at that time was a big risk for an American seminary; the infusion of ideas that flowed from the Archbishop’s furtive intellect and prolific pen; and, as all of us can attest to, the profound friendships that he fostered.
We know the Archbishop has his detractors, but they do not know the man like we do. They do not know his profound love for his friends and all those under his care; they do not know his simplicity of life rooted in his Franciscan love of poverty; they do not know his selfless obedience to the Church; they do not know his love for the truth tempered by genuine compassion for the spiritually and materially poor. We know all these things and more, and so we rightly celebrate them today.
Archbishop Chaput is not just a man God in his mercy gave us for a time; his legacy will long outlive all of us. But it is important that we take on the responsibility of continuing his legacy ourselves. We have been given a great gift by Archbishop Chaput’s life and friendship, which places on us an obligation to model his example of generously and fearlessly letting the Holy Spirit work through us.
I have so many memories of my time with him in Denver, but one that is burned in my soul is the Sunday evening Masses for young adults. You could sense that this was his most important appointment of the week, week after week. The young would flock to the cathedral Sunday evenings, to the point where there was standing room only. He preached the Gospel in a way that challenged the youth but also gave them hope. He made it clear that they were being called to something great, much in the spirit of John Paul II, who himself had preached in the same cathedral and called World Youth Day Denver a revolution.
Archbishop Chaput made all of us feel we were called to something greater than we could imagine ourselves. I would not be a bishop without him seeing something in me that I didn’t, and I imagine all of you credit much of your work’s success to his confidence in you.
Archbishop Chaput was the field general of the revolution and the faithful responded to his call in part because he lived what the Psalmist today proclaims: The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. In all my years knowing him, Archbishop Chaput witnessed to a joyful heart, even in the difficult times.
It is no secret that his move to Philadelphia was a tremendous change from Denver. Philadelphia did not have the young Catholic culture of Denver. It was an old Catholic culture that came with many challenges, more than any of us likely know. And yet the Archbishop still exhibited a joyful heart that can only be explained as a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Archbishop Chaput’s living in the Holy Spirit was visible in his management of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, which he did in faithful obedience to the Holy Father, and in so much more. The many hard decisions that he had to make, both in Denver and in Philadelphia, and no doubt in Rapid City and his time as his community’s provincial, were the fruit of his confidence in Christ’s love for the Church.
Let me also mention our disappointment that he was not elevated to the College of Cardinals. I do not think this is something that concerns the Archbishop, as he was never interested in titles or individual honors. We have never discussed it, but it is a sadness for the rest of us because it would have been a gift for the Church, one that would have inspired more courage from the Church and given the Holy Spirit more opportunities to act in creative ways. But this was not meant to be, which I can only characterize as the worst form of church politics when, for seemingly ideological reasons, a man of poverty, evangelical zeal, and profound intellectual gifts is passed over. We trust the Holy Spirit will still bring good out of this, but it is a disappointment that deserves acknowledgment.
With grateful hearts, however, we celebrate a man who is a witness to the creative work of the Holy Spirit. We thank God that our lives intersected with his. And we pray that the gift of his life will continue to shape the Church. What we need now in the Church is more men and women with his evangelical zeal to proclaim the Gospel courageously.
It is with all of this in mind that we recall Archbishop Chaput’s episcopal motto, “As Christ loved the Church.” Today we acknowledge his love for each one of us, and our love for him. May his witness of love for the Church continue to bear radical fruit in our lives and in the life of the Church.
The Most Reverend James D. Conley, D.D., S.T.L. is bishop of Lincoln. His episcopal motto is the same as John Henry Cardinal Newman’s, “cor ad cor loquitur,” which means “heart speaks to heart.”