E hiki mai kou aupuni
Here is the prepared text of Bishop Castori’s remarks given at the conclusion of his episcopal ordination and installation Mass July 28 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa.
Forty years ago, when I was a novice in the Society of Jesus, making for the first time the Spiritual Exercises — that is, the 30-day retreat formulated by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the order’s founder — I found my heart enflamed by the retreat’s meditation that is entitled, “The call of Christ the King.”
Within it, St. Ignatius invites the retreatant first to imagine an earthly but noble king calling his subjects to labor with him day and night, sharing in his own hardship, so as to achieve the good of the realm, and to be moved by noble aspirations to answer the call of a king so generous and kind. But then, with these noble desires enkindled within, the retreatant is asked to consider how much more ardently he or she will respond to the call of Christ the king, who, invested with divine majesty, humbles himself to suffer, die and rise, so as to conquer death and establish the kingdom of God even in our midst: a kingdom of justice and peace and self-sacrificing love, in which the lowly are lifted up and the weakest are cared for.
And so, now, 40 years after being captivated by the stirring images of that meditation, I find myself in awe that God has looked upon me in my unworthiness and called me to shepherd the only diocese in these 50 states that comprises a land that engendered kingship and nobility, and consequently is graced with people with an instinctive reverence for majesty. One can say that the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius require no translation in Hawaii.
In this light, I was struck that, in launching this year’s celebration of the bicentennial of Catholicism in Hawaii, my revered predecessor and father, His Excellency, the Most Rev. Clarence “Larry” Silva, declared, “The missionaries who brought Christianity to these islands were not writing on a blank slate.”
Indeed, they encountered a spirituality that explains much of why their labors have borne such abundant fruit these past two centuries. For certainly, it is no mere coincidence that a people so interiorly disposed to receive the call of Christ the king — this same people should be animated by the luminous cultural value of aloha, which, at its heart, is selfless-love. And isn’t it wonderful that, whatever our ancestry, whatever our place of origin, our first language, by virtue of our dwelling in these majestic islands, our whole way of life becomes imbued with aloha, with blessings redounding to our families and the communities from which we come, even as our divinely created diversity enriches the life of our diocese.
And so, as we enter this bicentennial, this year of favor, let us give thanks to God for the workings of grace and dedicate ourselves to discovering and strengthening anew the integral relationship between that which makes us who we are and the gospel of Jesus Christ which heralds God’s reign.
We give thanks for our loving parents, our sisters and brothers and all family, through whose unconditional love we first glimpsed the radiance of God’s kingdom, which we now bear to others.
We give thanks for the priests, sisters and brothers, deacons and their wives, the catechists and lay ministers, who, through the constant intercession of Our Blessed Mother Our Lady of Peace, St. Damien of Molokai, St. Marianne Cope and all the saints, nourish the faithful in their sacramental lives, conveying the grace to understand, live and share the teachings of Christ while journeying to eternal life — they build the kingdom of God.
The ambassadors of God’s mercy, those serving in the enormous array of social ministries of our diocese, feeding, clothing and housing literally thousands of our brothers and sisters in need every day, embodying the love of Christ with their hands and feet, they witness to and build the kingdom of God in our midst.
Our brothers and sisters of other faiths, the ecumenical and interfaith leadership who are joined with us in prayer this day, and in the practice of their faiths join with us in advocating for a more humane and just society, a more equitable sharing of the earth’s riches, with care for our planet, and respect for the dignity of every human being created in the image of God, they are our beloved brothers and sisters, and they build the kingdom of God.
Families who make great sacrifices to educate their children, and teachers who light the spark of wonder within our youth, opening their minds and hearts to the wideness of God’s creation so that they in turn become its worthy citizens, and in the conduct of their lives build communities which, in place of antipathy and violence, foster mutual understanding and fraternity, they build the kingdom of God.
The planners, sponsors, volunteers, ministers of this holy Mass and its attendant events, all who have worked tirelessly these past months to ensure that the spirit and the practicalities — even the smallest details — of these events, impart a memorable and lasting blessing to all present, they build the kingdom of God.
So, too, friends and family — you who have journeyed here from near and far, bearing your love as a bouquet that enhances the joy of the Diocese of Honolulu, so that we who remain carry your love forward always, you build the kingdom of God in our midst.
And all of us, gathered as ohana, as family, whenever we turn from despair, encouraged in the truth that, by the grace of God, even a single ray of light, the mere eyelids of dawn dispel the darkness, so that nothing can deafen us to the call of Christ the king, nothing can deter us from our mission from the Lord to heal our human family’s wounds of sin and division, together, we build the kingdom of God.
Let this be our prayer, let us voice it from the depths of our hearts, in this bicentennial and in the years to follow, with trust that our longing shall be fully realized: “E hiki mai kou aupuni” — “thy kingdom come,” on Earth, as it is in heaven.