On Sunday, April 27, Archbishop George Lucas celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. The Mass marked the completion of his service as Archbishop of Omaha and the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination. What follows is Archbishop Lucas’ homily from the Mass.
Good. You’re sitting down. I’m going to try not to talk too long, but in case I do, I won’t feel so bad if you’re sitting down.
Thank you all for coming. Welcome, everybody, to Saint Cecilia’s Cathedral. It’s an opportunity for me to say thanks to you and thanks to God for the privilege of serving here as the Archbishop for almost 16 years. I’m especially happy to see some of our newest members of the Catholic faith, those who are baptized and who came into full communion with the Church here at Saint Cecilia’s just a week ago at the Easter Vigil. You are especially welcome. You’re all invited to a reception after this Mass in the gym, which is just behind the Cathedral. And you’re invited to use the south entrance, which is on Webster Street. There’s no formal program over there, but there’s lots of food. So, I hope you’ll come and help us eat the food and take a moment to visit if you’re able to do that. I’d be happy to see you. I’m not going to stay at the door here and greet people like I usually do, but I’m going to make my way to the reception right away after Mass.
So, we all know that we’re living in a time of transition. Just in general, in our own country, in our culture, things are changing, and those of us who’ve been around a while realize they’re changing pretty quickly in some ways and some of it feels good and some of it feels ominous. Pope Francis has famously said that this isn’t just an age of change, but it’s the change of an age. His sense was things are changing significantly, and when we’re right in the middle of that we can’t really sense where it’s going, how it’s all to end up. Of course, it’s a time of change in our Catholic Church. Pope Francis has gone to the Lord just a few days ago, and the cardinals are staying in Rome, those who were there for his funeral and soon, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they’ll choose a new Holy Father. So we don’t know who it is – lots of people are speculating – I wouldn’t put any money on any of it if I were you. But we will, as we have done since the death of Saint Peter, will have a new Vicar of Christ.
And here in the archdiocese, we’re soon going to welcome a new archbishop. I hope that you’re praying for Archbishop-designate McGovern. This is a big time of transition for him personally, as it is for all of us here. But I know he’ll feel very welcome. I think you’re going to really like and appreciate him. I know he’s going to like and appreciate all of you and come to love you as I have.
So, as we’re experiencing all this change, it’s an opportunity for us to reflect that the Church of Jesus Christ endures. There have been changes in the Church since the first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and under the guidance of the Church’s pastors over the years, there’s been some flexibility where that’s been possible so that the Church could adapt to changing circumstances and there’s been great steadfastness in terms of teaching and practice where that’s been important. So that we can be confident in two things. That it really is the Church of Jesus Christ that has reached us here and to which we have been incorporated and it’s a living Church. It’s not a museum piece. It’s a living Church to which we are invited and incorporated. So, in this time of transition here in the archdiocese, we might ask ourselves, why do we have a Church anyway? We love our Catholic faith. Why? Why is it so important to have the Church?
I think today’s feast and the Gospel from St. John in particular help us answer that question. Jesus Christ himself has established the Church because he wants to meet people in every time and place. He breathes the Holy Spirit on us as He has on disciples in every generation before us. So that the Church becomes and remains a living organism, it’s, in fact, His own body, the Church. Jesus Himself is the head. We sometimes talk about the Church as an institution. Maybe it is in some ways, but it is not only that, and it’s not a club. Certainly it’s not a mechanism that just makes things happen or dispenses favors or grace. But rather, you and I have been incorporated, made part of the body, the flesh of Jesus, we may say, in our time that incorporated into this living body through baptism.
When Jesus says to Thomas in the Gospel today, blessed are those who believe without seeing, He’s talking about you and me. How blessed we are to be able to know Jesus and to put our faith in him without being able to see Him face to face like those disciples did when He appeared to them risen from the dead on Easter evening, but without seeing Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. We do know Him, and we do have the chance to meet Him. We can talk to Him in very familiar ways, and we listen as He speaks to us. And all this is possible through the action of the Holy Spirit, in the sacraments, in the community of believers, in a personal relationship with Jesus that each of us is privileged to have.
This is why we have the Holy Spirit, why Jesus has breathed the Holy Spirit onto and into the Church. It’s the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, living in us, among us and in the community, drawing us together into the unity of the Body of Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit dwelling in each of us. We’re living temples of the Holy Spirit. It is that Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us right now, in the 21st Century, to see Jesus. You know, see Him, as I said, face to face. But we do recognize Him in our life together in the Church. We do hear His voice. We are in His company. So Jesus has established the Church so that we could meet Him, and He could meet us right here where we live. So, another question: Why does Jesus want to meet us? Why is this such an important part of God’s plan, our life in the Church, that Jesus would meet us? Well, He wants to meet you and me for the same reason He sought out his apostles on Easter.
You know, when he appeared to them that evening, the day he had risen from the dead, they were in that locked room. They were afraid. And they also had a lot to be ashamed of. They had behaved really badly, most of them, on the day when Jesus would have needed His friends the most, when He would have wanted their support, their company. Most of them ran away. So, they had a lot to be ashamed of. There they were huddled together. But Jesus did not come to shame them, to deepen their shame, but His wounds were visible, so the effect of their sinfulness and the effect of the sinfulness of all of us was really there. It was true. It was a dose of reality for them in the midst of this joy of seeing Him risen from the dead. Jesus wanted to be with them, then, wants to be with us, still. Wanted to be with them, to forgive and to heal them.
Again, to quote Pope Francis, he told us that Jesus is the personification of Divine Mercy. This is why we celebrate this day as the Day of Divine Mercy because it’s the day that Jesus in person came to give this wonderful gift of mercy and peace to His sinful and imperfect, ashamed and fearful disciples. So Jesus is here with us today, He’s here with you and me, His sinful and imperfect disciples of the 21st Century in Nebraska. And why? Why does He want to be here with us personally in a way that we can know Him through the power of the Holy Spirit? Because he wants us to receive peace, peace through the forgiveness of our sins. We don’t know exactly what went through the minds of the apostles when they saw Jesus and heard His greeting, “Peace be with you.”
What they began to realize I think is that Jesus was there for them. That He was not against them. Perhaps they thought, simply, I want the life that you have. I want the life that you have. Not the life that I’ve made for myself. The life I construct for myself, by myself, so often does not bring me peace. The opening to receive Jesus, to meet Him, to allow Him to meet us where we are, to receive this beautiful gift of His mercy, His peace. The opening for this is the acknowledgment that I’ve been selfish. I’ve been self-indulgent. I’ve been fearful. I have a lot to be ashamed of. I carry a burden of hurt and guilt that I can’t just slough off and I can’t ignore. But once I recognize this and see the wounds of Jesus drawing so close to me, then Jesus, who is so close, whose living body has been wounded by my sins, by yours, then Jesus is able to impart His mercy. I am able to receive the gift of peace. A peace that the world cannot give. This gift of Jesus means life for us. A life of grace here and eternal life when life in this world is ended. We can have this life if we choose life. If, in some way, like those first disciples, we say to ourselves, I don’t want the life I’ve constructed for myself. I want the life that Jesus has. I want the life that he wants to share with me. This is always God’s deep desire for us. It’s why we’ve been created. Why we’re being created at this moment. It’s God’s desire that we share, not just a little life, but that we share in divine life. This is why He has made us.
So Jesus comes to be with us, He draws close to us, He wants to meet us so that we can be forgiven and live. That’s what He gives us. What does He ask of us? We who have life now, life in Him with our sins forgiven. Well, he asks us as He asked those first disciples of His to be His witnesses. We receive divine mercy in our relationship with Jesus Christ not as a trophy, something that we can just sort of possess and be proud of, but he gives us forgiveness really as a commission. Simply put, Jesus asks us to tell somebody that we have experienced new life in Him with our sins forgiven. Not because of what we have accomplished ourselves but because of God’s deep love for us, His desire that we live because of God’s divine mercy personified in Jesus. He asks us to tell somebody that we have met the Lord, that He has come to us and shown Himself to us, and that we have come to have life in Him.
You know, those first apostles, minus Thomas, who were all there in the upper room when Jesus appeared. They got to tell Thomas about what they had seen and about this great gift of peace that Jesus had brought to them. Saint John has written this beautiful Gospel telling us about this appearance of Jesus. And so over all these years, Saint John is telling you and me. Who are we going to tell? Who are you and I going to tell about this beautiful encounter that we have had with Jesus that we continue to have in our lives together in the Church, this encounter that Jesus has been providing in good times and in bad times, in war and in peace, over all these generations, and is offering us still.
It’s a great privilege of a priest and a bishop to bring the living Jesus to others and to bring others to him in a particular way. We get to do this in preaching and calling forth the gifts that so many people in the community are being given day by day by the Holy Spirit.
We do this in celebrating the sacraments with you and with your brothers and sisters, especially the sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. In each of these sacraments, there’s the invitation to such an intimate experience within the community of the presence of the risen Jesus.
He comes right there to be with us when we confess our sins. He comes right here to be with us when we receive Him in Holy Communion, and remember why, why does He come? Not to shame us, not to punish us, but to save us, to heal us and to bring us peace.
I’ve enjoyed this privilege, this blessing in my ministry as a priest and a bishop for 50 years. I want to keep doing it for as many years as God gives me.
Today, as we celebrate together, I ask God to bless all of you. In the words of St. John in today’s Gospel, I pray that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief, you may have life in Him.
Commentary
Archbishop of Omaha George J. Lucas Farewell Mass
May 2, 2025
On Sunday, April 27, Archbishop George Lucas celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. The Mass marked the completion of his service as Archbishop of Omaha and the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination. What follows is Archbishop Lucas’ homily from the Mass.
Good. You’re sitting down. I’m going to try not to talk too long, but in case I do, I won’t feel so bad if you’re sitting down.
Thank you all for coming. Welcome, everybody, to Saint Cecilia’s Cathedral. It’s an opportunity for me to say thanks to you and thanks to God for the privilege of serving here as the Archbishop for almost 16 years. I’m especially happy to see some of our newest members of the Catholic faith, those who are baptized and who came into full communion with the Church here at Saint Cecilia’s just a week ago at the Easter Vigil. You are especially welcome. You’re all invited to a reception after this Mass in the gym, which is just behind the Cathedral. And you’re invited to use the south entrance, which is on Webster Street. There’s no formal program over there, but there’s lots of food. So, I hope you’ll come and help us eat the food and take a moment to visit if you’re able to do that. I’d be happy to see you. I’m not going to stay at the door here and greet people like I usually do, but I’m going to make my way to the reception right away after Mass.
So, we all know that we’re living in a time of transition. Just in general, in our own country, in our culture, things are changing, and those of us who’ve been around a while realize they’re changing pretty quickly in some ways and some of it feels good and some of it feels ominous. Pope Francis has famously said that this isn’t just an age of change, but it’s the change of an age. His sense was things are changing significantly, and when we’re right in the middle of that we can’t really sense where it’s going, how it’s all to end up. Of course, it’s a time of change in our Catholic Church. Pope Francis has gone to the Lord just a few days ago, and the cardinals are staying in Rome, those who were there for his funeral and soon, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they’ll choose a new Holy Father. So we don’t know who it is – lots of people are speculating – I wouldn’t put any money on any of it if I were you. But we will, as we have done since the death of Saint Peter, will have a new Vicar of Christ.
And here in the archdiocese, we’re soon going to welcome a new archbishop. I hope that you’re praying for Archbishop-designate McGovern. This is a big time of transition for him personally, as it is for all of us here. But I know he’ll feel very welcome. I think you’re going to really like and appreciate him. I know he’s going to like and appreciate all of you and come to love you as I have.
So, as we’re experiencing all this change, it’s an opportunity for us to reflect that the Church of Jesus Christ endures. There have been changes in the Church since the first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and under the guidance of the Church’s pastors over the years, there’s been some flexibility where that’s been possible so that the Church could adapt to changing circumstances and there’s been great steadfastness in terms of teaching and practice where that’s been important. So that we can be confident in two things. That it really is the Church of Jesus Christ that has reached us here and to which we have been incorporated and it’s a living Church. It’s not a museum piece. It’s a living Church to which we are invited and incorporated. So, in this time of transition here in the archdiocese, we might ask ourselves, why do we have a Church anyway? We love our Catholic faith. Why? Why is it so important to have the Church?
I think today’s feast and the Gospel from St. John in particular help us answer that question. Jesus Christ himself has established the Church because he wants to meet people in every time and place. He breathes the Holy Spirit on us as He has on disciples in every generation before us. So that the Church becomes and remains a living organism, it’s, in fact, His own body, the Church. Jesus Himself is the head. We sometimes talk about the Church as an institution. Maybe it is in some ways, but it is not only that, and it’s not a club. Certainly it’s not a mechanism that just makes things happen or dispenses favors or grace. But rather, you and I have been incorporated, made part of the body, the flesh of Jesus, we may say, in our time that incorporated into this living body through baptism.
When Jesus says to Thomas in the Gospel today, blessed are those who believe without seeing, He’s talking about you and me. How blessed we are to be able to know Jesus and to put our faith in him without being able to see Him face to face like those disciples did when He appeared to them risen from the dead on Easter evening, but without seeing Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. We do know Him, and we do have the chance to meet Him. We can talk to Him in very familiar ways, and we listen as He speaks to us. And all this is possible through the action of the Holy Spirit, in the sacraments, in the community of believers, in a personal relationship with Jesus that each of us is privileged to have.
This is why we have the Holy Spirit, why Jesus has breathed the Holy Spirit onto and into the Church. It’s the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, living in us, among us and in the community, drawing us together into the unity of the Body of Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit dwelling in each of us. We’re living temples of the Holy Spirit. It is that Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us right now, in the 21st Century, to see Jesus. You know, see Him, as I said, face to face. But we do recognize Him in our life together in the Church. We do hear His voice. We are in His company. So Jesus has established the Church so that we could meet Him, and He could meet us right here where we live. So, another question: Why does Jesus want to meet us? Why is this such an important part of God’s plan, our life in the Church, that Jesus would meet us? Well, He wants to meet you and me for the same reason He sought out his apostles on Easter.
You know, when he appeared to them that evening, the day he had risen from the dead, they were in that locked room. They were afraid. And they also had a lot to be ashamed of. They had behaved really badly, most of them, on the day when Jesus would have needed His friends the most, when He would have wanted their support, their company. Most of them ran away. So, they had a lot to be ashamed of. There they were huddled together. But Jesus did not come to shame them, to deepen their shame, but His wounds were visible, so the effect of their sinfulness and the effect of the sinfulness of all of us was really there. It was true. It was a dose of reality for them in the midst of this joy of seeing Him risen from the dead. Jesus wanted to be with them, then, wants to be with us, still. Wanted to be with them, to forgive and to heal them.
Again, to quote Pope Francis, he told us that Jesus is the personification of Divine Mercy. This is why we celebrate this day as the Day of Divine Mercy because it’s the day that Jesus in person came to give this wonderful gift of mercy and peace to His sinful and imperfect, ashamed and fearful disciples. So Jesus is here with us today, He’s here with you and me, His sinful and imperfect disciples of the 21st Century in Nebraska. And why? Why does He want to be here with us personally in a way that we can know Him through the power of the Holy Spirit? Because he wants us to receive peace, peace through the forgiveness of our sins. We don’t know exactly what went through the minds of the apostles when they saw Jesus and heard His greeting, “Peace be with you.”
What they began to realize I think is that Jesus was there for them. That He was not against them. Perhaps they thought, simply, I want the life that you have. I want the life that you have. Not the life that I’ve made for myself. The life I construct for myself, by myself, so often does not bring me peace. The opening to receive Jesus, to meet Him, to allow Him to meet us where we are, to receive this beautiful gift of His mercy, His peace. The opening for this is the acknowledgment that I’ve been selfish. I’ve been self-indulgent. I’ve been fearful. I have a lot to be ashamed of. I carry a burden of hurt and guilt that I can’t just slough off and I can’t ignore. But once I recognize this and see the wounds of Jesus drawing so close to me, then Jesus, who is so close, whose living body has been wounded by my sins, by yours, then Jesus is able to impart His mercy. I am able to receive the gift of peace. A peace that the world cannot give. This gift of Jesus means life for us. A life of grace here and eternal life when life in this world is ended. We can have this life if we choose life. If, in some way, like those first disciples, we say to ourselves, I don’t want the life I’ve constructed for myself. I want the life that Jesus has. I want the life that he wants to share with me. This is always God’s deep desire for us. It’s why we’ve been created. Why we’re being created at this moment. It’s God’s desire that we share, not just a little life, but that we share in divine life. This is why He has made us.
So Jesus comes to be with us, He draws close to us, He wants to meet us so that we can be forgiven and live. That’s what He gives us. What does He ask of us? We who have life now, life in Him with our sins forgiven. Well, he asks us as He asked those first disciples of His to be His witnesses. We receive divine mercy in our relationship with Jesus Christ not as a trophy, something that we can just sort of possess and be proud of, but he gives us forgiveness really as a commission. Simply put, Jesus asks us to tell somebody that we have experienced new life in Him with our sins forgiven. Not because of what we have accomplished ourselves but because of God’s deep love for us, His desire that we live because of God’s divine mercy personified in Jesus. He asks us to tell somebody that we have met the Lord, that He has come to us and shown Himself to us, and that we have come to have life in Him.
You know, those first apostles, minus Thomas, who were all there in the upper room when Jesus appeared. They got to tell Thomas about what they had seen and about this great gift of peace that Jesus had brought to them. Saint John has written this beautiful Gospel telling us about this appearance of Jesus. And so over all these years, Saint John is telling you and me. Who are we going to tell? Who are you and I going to tell about this beautiful encounter that we have had with Jesus that we continue to have in our lives together in the Church, this encounter that Jesus has been providing in good times and in bad times, in war and in peace, over all these generations, and is offering us still.
It’s a great privilege of a priest and a bishop to bring the living Jesus to others and to bring others to him in a particular way. We get to do this in preaching and calling forth the gifts that so many people in the community are being given day by day by the Holy Spirit.
We do this in celebrating the sacraments with you and with your brothers and sisters, especially the sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. In each of these sacraments, there’s the invitation to such an intimate experience within the community of the presence of the risen Jesus.
He comes right there to be with us when we confess our sins. He comes right here to be with us when we receive Him in Holy Communion, and remember why, why does He come? Not to shame us, not to punish us, but to save us, to heal us and to bring us peace.
I’ve enjoyed this privilege, this blessing in my ministry as a priest and a bishop for 50 years. I want to keep doing it for as many years as God gives me.
Today, as we celebrate together, I ask God to bless all of you. In the words of St. John in today’s Gospel, I pray that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief, you may have life in Him.
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