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Bishop's Homily for the Red Mass

January 14, 2026

(Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)

Homily of the Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu, for the Red Mass
Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, Honolulu
(Keynote Speaker:  Ms. Connie Mitchell, President & CEO of Institute of Human Services)

When my grandmother was dying of congestive heart failure, she spent several weeks in the hospital. Her condition meant that she was on a no-sodium diet, which she hated. The hospital staff was worried, because she would often refuse to eat this saltless food. But they did notice that when a family member was with her at mealtime, she would eat. In effect, our family served as the salt that she otherwise missed in her diet. We were, in a real sense, “the salt of the earth.”

January is Kalaupapa Month in the State of Hawaii, because of all the significant events that took place there in January. As you know, this is the tiny peninsula on the North side of Molokai where those who had been diagnosed with leprosy were exiled. It was the place where St. Damien and St. Marianne – whose relics we have here in this church – did their finest and most inspiring work.

In the early 1900’s, however, the United States Government decided to fund and staff a state-of-the art hospital not far from St. Damien’s church of St. Philomena. They had the most up-to-date medicines, technologies and staff. Yet the endeavor failed in very short order because the patients soon discovered that, no matter how enlightened the technology was for the time, the staff was afraid of them and did not treat them very well. They were not “salt of the earth and light of the world” to those patients.

As we meet today, we are faced with many difficult challenges: a seemingly out-of-control growth in homelessness; serious mental health difficulties; addictions; fear and anxiety among immigrants; wars; and a civil discourse that has become anything but civil. We need laws and policies to address all of these issues, and so our public servants whom we pray for today have a great burden in leading us all to find solutions to these persistent and thorny issues.

But we are primarily here today to be reminded that to truly “do justice, love goodness, and walk humbly” we must do so with the God who gives us the strength to be salt and light for others. We recall that, even though policies, programs and laws are extremely important and should be carefully crafted in wisdom, it is simple human interaction that truly gives us the ability to be salt for others that will make change in their lives much more tasteful. Whatever we can do to bring a human face and a human heart to our laws and policies will bear much more fruit.

But this human involvement demands an attitude toward others that is poor in spirit, that truly mourns people’s struggles and losses, that is meek and hungry for righteousness, merciful, clean of heart, and peacemaking. Sometimes it may lead to suffering, insults or persecution for ourselves. And the only way we can foster these virtues that will truly make us blessed and a blessing for others, is to submit ourselves in prayer and worship to “walk humbly with God.” The closer we stay to God and his ways, the more we will be able to bring the spice of compassion to a world that is often so insipid, and to bring to a world so often in darkness a light that cannot be overcome.