Below is the transcript of the homily delivered on Oct. 25, 2014 at the Diocesan Pilgrimage at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C.:
We come as a diocese once again to the beautiful Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This year we dedicate our prayer and sacrifice for the persecuted Christians of the Middle East and all victims of terrorism. Today, we have chosen the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians because, indeed, the Christians of the Middle East are in need of her motherly intercession and care. In our First Reading today, the Word of God goes directly to the entrance of evil into the world. God created the world to be good. Because of the disobedience of man and woman, however, evil entered the world. The scene in the Book of Genesis portrays for us the cunning work of the serpent devil and the contradictory nature of evil itself. The great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas taught that even when man or women choose evil, somehow each believe that they are choosing something that is good for him or her. Yes, Adam and Eve wanted to know more. They wanted to be like God. And, so, when the serpent tempted Eve to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge which had been forbidden by God, she succumbs to that temptation and, in fact, took it to her husband and he too ate of the forbidden fruit. The trick of Satan is still in our world today to present evil under the appearance of good. Radical Islam, that today persecutes our brothers and sisters in Christ, appears to these people to be something good. They must rid the world of those who will not accept their truth of Islam. And so they pervert their own religion and ruthlessly take the lives of others, or force them to convert or displace them from their own lands. Evil is not easily conquered, however, it is our Blessed Mother, Mary, who is our hope and intercessor.
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