On Feb. 27, in one of his final public events as Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory performed a blessing ceremony for the dedication of the chapel at the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center at Howard University, one of the HBCUs in the nation's capital.
This Newman Center opened in 2023, serving the HU Bison Catholic community as a place of regular gathering for fellowship. The creation of its chapel, renovated from a structure next door, commenced thereafter. The following remarks from Cardinal Gregory at the dedication are reprinted here with permission.
Can you hear me now?
That once popular Verizon television commercial of a hapless cell phone user walking around asking this well-known uncertainty still causes all of us to chuckle because, all too often, it might have described our own unfortunate situations. We live in the world of cellular telephones, and we know that there are some dead spots where phones just don't seem to work.
Cell phones, however, do all manage to work quite well inside churches. It is frustrating to be out of reach in a world that relies so heavily on our cellular capacity. It is even more frustrating to be out of touch with the one upon whom our very existence depends. It is exasperating because any failure of equipment is always and inevitably on our parts.
Prayer is the vehicle for communicating with God, and none of us ever manages to speak with God frequently enough. This evening, the Thea Bowman Newman family gathers to bless a precious new location for a special form of prayer that has no rival. We are here to consecrate a new place of prayer.
Now, many people may often suggest that churches are not the only places where we can and should pray, and they are absolutely correct.
Each one of us may well have a special place where we like to pray: at home in a favorite, comfortable part of our house; or on a quiet, secluded beach or park; in the garden, as we tend the plants whose very growth is dependent upon God's gracious cycle of life. And then, on the golf course. There are often mighty and frequent prayers offered there.
But all of those places, as special as they might be in each one of our lives, are never comparable to the Lord's altar around which God's family gathers. The altar is the place where the Church’s prayer, the perfect prayer, the liturgy, is offered. Here around this table, all of God's children assemble to speak to our Father—not as individuals having many different voices, but as a single family of faith speaking the one perfect word.
The altar is the place where the Father listens to the voice of his people, because we always speak to him in the image of his son. The altar is the place where Calvary is made present in every age and time. The altar is the place where all hearts are united in Christ. That is why the altar is consecrated, smeared with sacred chrism, the oil of Christ himself.
We bless the altar because we believe that this truly is the place that can be called the gateway to God. Altars can be large and ornate or small and simple in their design. Altars can be stone or wood, square or rectangular, solid forms or tables with legs. What makes them sacred is that they are the place where the Church at prayer can always be certain that when we ask God the question, “Can you hear us now?” the answer from the Lord is always loud and clear. Christ has given us a few very specific instructions regarding how we are to live in the world, such as the one we just heard in tonight's Gospel passage as salt and as light for everyone.
The altar is therefore most like a family table, where the father will not tolerate any bickering or rancor among his children. The altar is the place that belongs to all of us, and where we must be a family at peace. We consecrate a new altar for the Thea Bowman family, and this house of the Church that has been refurbished and is no longer a common garage but a chapel for prayer.
It will serve this young university family as a place where God summons all of you to celebrate your faith: the same faith that unites you to the Church in every place throughout the world. The Father is the same, but we, as members of this youthful family, ought also to be renewed. We must also pour a new chrism of serenity upon these walls [and] bless these chapel objects to be used when we speak to the Father in the name of Christ.
Like any family that has a new piece of furniture, we should admire and carefully watch over this new altar and the liturgical objects. But above all, we should promise one another that we will be a better family because the place where the Father always listens to his children has been enhanced and wonderfully renovated. So, too, should all those who gather around it, and give thanks that we belong to the Father who always listens to his children in prayer.
Can you hear us now? I suspect that we all know the answer to that question this evening. Amen. Amen.
