Mass of thanksgiving puts bow on beatification Mass, offers blessing with relic

DETROIT — It was a Mass of thanksgiving, three days after Thanksgiving, in honor of a friar whose life was all about thanks, and giving.

On Nov. 26, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron celebrated Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament to praise and thank God for the beatification of Blessed Solanus Casey the week before. The Mass also marked the day after what would have been Blessed Solanus’ 147th birthday.

Reflecting on the joyous celebration eight days earlier at Ford Field, Archbishop Vigneron said the local Church gives thanks for the beatification “so that now we can venerate Fr. Solanus as blessed, pray for his intercession in our churches, and pay homage to his image and his relics.”

Leading the congregation in doing just that, Archbishop Vigneron invoked Blessed Solanus during the liturgy and blessed the congregation with the first-class relic that will stay housed at the cathedral.

Before the Mass, the archbishop blessed a new art installation at the cathedral’s front gate. The sculpture by Timothy Schmalz, titled “When I Was Naked,” depicts a homeless man hunched over and shivering — an homage to Blessed Solanus’ care for the “least of these” described in the day’s Gospel from Matthew. (See more photos here)

That Sunday’s liturgy also marked the feast of Christ the King, Archbishop Vigneron said, a reminder to the Church that Jesus “will come again in glory and make complete what he began on Easter Sunday.”

“Jesus Christ is king because he has risen from the dead,” Archbishop Vigneron said.

While the concept of a “kingship” is foreign to most Americans, Archbishop Vigneron said, the kingship of Jesus is about “sacrifice and service.”

“If you want to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, we have to follow the example of the first citizen: our king, Jesus” Archbishop Vigneron said.

Sacrifice isn’t just about giving away “stuff,” but in “giving of ourselves,” the archbishop said, “because Christ has given himself to us first.”

In God’s kingdom, even failure can be part of our sacrifice when those failures are lifted to God, the archbishop said.

“All of that said, we can see why it is good to give God thanks for the beatification of Fr. Solanus on the feast of Christ the King,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “Does he not exemplify how to be a citizen in the kingdom of God, how to follow Christ as king and how to make him one’s Lord?”

Acknowledging the presence of several beatification Mass organizers and Capuchins in attendance, including Fr. David Preuss, Bro. Richard Merling and Fr. Michael Sullivan, Archbishop Vigneron said Blessed Solanus’ task was to “more firmly establish the kingdom of God on Mt. Elliott between Vernor and Lafayette,” a task the Capuchins still hold today.

For the rest of us, Archbishop Vigneron said, it’s our job to establish the kingdom in the homes, businesses, offices and plants across Metro Detroit, in “whatever sphere is ours.”