'We will go forward,' Biloxi bishop says in post-hurricane homily

Published: 2005-09-07

BILOXI, Miss. (CNS) -- After experiencing the damage and suffering wrought by Hurricane Katrina, many are asking why, just as Job had asked God after Job and his family suffered misfortune after misfortune, said Bishop Thomas J. Rodi of Biloxi. His only answer to "Why?" is "I do not know," Bishop Rodi said in homilies delivered over the Labor Day weekend at three churches in the diocese. "But this I do know: that the love of God is with us. That the Lord who wept over Jerusalem, knowing that it would be destroyed, is with us. The Lord who wept with Martha and Mary at the tomb of their brother Lazarus is with us." Knowing this, "we now go forward together, and we will go forward," he added. "Our communities will never be the same, but they can be better. We will never be the same, but we can be better. With God's help, and the help of one another, we will go forward. We are God's family, we are Mississippi, and Mississippi will rise again." Bishop Rodi delivered the homily Sept. 3 at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in Biloxi, and Sept. 4 at St. Rose De Lima Church in Bay St. Louis and at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Pineville.

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