PHOTOS | 'Know Jesus': Archbishop Aquila's Final Mass of Thanksgiving
- André Escaleira, Jr.
- Mar 23
- 7 min read
Hundreds from across Northern Colorado came together in prayer and gratitude for Denver's retiring archbishop.
Before hundreds of faithful gathered Sunday afternoon for a special Mass of Thanksgiving at Light of the World Parish in Littleton, Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila summed up his years of ministry in a simple and powerful way.
“That has been my greatest desire for all of you in the 13 and a half plus years that I have been with you: that you come to know Jesus, the depth of his eternal love for you, and that you put your faith in him and experience the joy of the Gospel, even in the trials and suffering you may have,” he said during his homily. “Because he is faithful. ‘I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.’”
In the special liturgy ahead of his official retirement on Wednesday, hundreds from around the archdiocese gathered to pray for and express gratitude to God for the retiring shepherd — a fitting dynamic, given the Eucharist’s etymological and theological connection to “thanksgiving.”
“I think it’s a really fitting end to celebrate the Eucharist, giving thanks to God for what he’s done,” remarked Father Brady Wagner, coordinator of the spirituality year at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, at the end of Mass. “I know that you constantly point us towards the Father to live for his glory and to praise Jesus Christ, the one who makes him known.”
Preaching Jesus Christ, and Him Alone
On Sunday and throughout his nearly 50-year-long ministry, Archbishop Aquila has been known for exactly that: preaching Jesus Christ and inviting others into a relationship with him. At the Mass of Thanksgiving culminating his 13 and a half years as Archbishop of Denver, it was no different, as the retiring shepherd returned to the basics of the faith in the kerygma, the Good News of the Gospel.
“We were made for him. We were loved eternally for him, and we were created in his image and his likeness. That is how much God has loved every human being,” the archbishop said. “Yet, Adam and Eve were captured, because they listened more to the voice of the Devil, just like we are captured when we listen more to the voice of the world.”
Even still, he continued, the truth of the Gospel is one of hope: there is a divine solution in Jesus. In fact, throughout the dozens of books of the Bible, over the course of centuries of salvation history, this plan unfolds.
“God constantly came back to his people. He constantly loved them. And he rescues us in his son, Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Aquila added. “It is Jesus Christ and Jesus alone who can give us eternal life. It is he and he alone who can forgive our sins. It is he and he alone who can heal our wounds and unbind us. And he desires to do it.”
In an act of unbridled love, Jesus Christ died for each and every human being, personally and individually, the archbishop noted. And a gift of that magnitude needs a response.
“We must respond to all of this love, to the love that has laid down his life for us on the Cross, opening our hearts to that gift,” he continued, noting the centrality of the kerygma to the Christian life. “Hopefully I have proclaimed that well to you in these 13 and a half years and invited you to enter into that gift that only God can give you. Because no priest, no bishop, no religious, no layperson can save you. The only one who can is Jesus Christ, and he alone.”
(Photos by Dan Petty/Denver Catholic)
A Grateful Shepherd and People
After more than a decade of preaching the Word of God “in season and out of season,” as St. Paul exhorted in 2 Timothy 4:2, Archbishop Aquila was filled with a profound gratitude.
“My deepest sentiment is one of gratitude,” he shared in remarks at the end of the Mass of Thanksgiving. “Gratitude to the Father for all that he has blessed me with. Gratitude for you, my brother priest, for the seminarians, the religious, for these lay faithful. And I give thanks to God for all the people he has brought into my life. Thank you to all of you, and let us keep each other in prayer and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.”
For one Massgoer, Sunday’s Mass of Thanksgiving was particularly meaningful, as Jesus worked through Archbishop Aquila’s hands during an Anointing of the Sick to bring about a providential and miraculous spiritual healing in her life.
Suffering from two chronic illnesses, Jacque Montoya, now a Lay Missionary of Charity, sought the Anointing of the Sick. Though she was not healed of the physical ailments, she did experience a profound healing “from my sins and the shame I wore.” The result was “a flood of graces poured over me all at once, and my life was forever changed.”
“I was given strength to carry my Cross and endure much suffering for souls, all while being filled with such joy from the Holy Spirit,” she explained.
“So today, for me, felt like a heartfelt moment as I shed tears going through the emotions of today’s Holy Mass,” she continued. “Archbishop Aquila is a true disciple of Jesus crucified, as he helped to save this little soul of mine by being a vessel for Christ!”
And Jacque was not alone in her gratitude, both to Archbishop Aquila for his devotion to the Church in Northern Colorado, and to God for calling the archbishop to Denver.
“What really struck me from the Mass was his ending line, ‘And may we all keep our eyes on Christ.’ I think that speaks to what his ministry was like, and I offer gratitude to him for having that spirit,” said Henry Johnson, a parishioner of Holy Name Parish in Sheridan.
“When they were all processing this afternoon, I said, ‘Thank you, Lord, because through these, your apostles, we can continue growing spiritually.’ If they weren’t here as guides and God hadn’t given them to us, we’d be like lost sheep, right? So thanks be to God for them who said ‘yes’ to the Lord, a ‘yes’ to following him, to evangelizing his people,” added Guadalupe Chavez, a parishioner of Light of the World.
And as he followed the Lord and evangelized his people throughout Northern Colorado, Archbishop Aquila also consistently pointed the way to God in a broken world.
“Rooted in Scripture, we know that your heart’s desire is to live the heart of Our Lady, to always point to Jesus and have us listen to him,” Father Wagner said in his remarks at the end of the Mass of Thanksgiving. “You came like Paul to Corinth, wanting to proclaim Jesus Christ only, and him crucified.”
“I feel like his ministry has brought up a culmination of the life and fullness of the Christian Catholic life. I feel like, in the times that we live in today, we need that vigor for life, that intensity for our faith,” Viena Valladares shared. “And he's done a great job of being bold with the teachings of the Church and staying true to the calling that Christ embedded in his heart. It's a beautiful time to be alive, to be a witness to all the work that he's done, and I'm excited to see how the next archbishop brings that to more fruition, more culmination, because the ground that he laid is just fertile soil, so it's been really beautiful,” Valladares concluded.
“Thank you for serving here for so many years. Almost always, when I hear his homilies, there’s something very important to take home with me, to learn, and today was no exception,” said Blanca Esparza. “It really moved me.”
A Faithful Father
At the core of his final Sunday homily as Archbishop of Denver — and indeed his ministry — was a call to be faithful, to follow Jesus and to encounter his people.
“Only faithfulness to Jesus Christ and he alone will produce fruit and fill our churches. The more faithful we are, the more abundant will the fruit be, because he has promised that. And do we believe it?” Archbishop Aquila said in his homily.
For Father Wagner, who thanked the archbishop on behalf of archdiocesan priests, Archbishop Aquila’s fidelity was especially visible in his fatherhood to the faithful in Northern Colorado and particularly for his priests.
One of the archbishop’s greatest gifts to the priests in Northern Colorado, he said, was “that you’ve invested in us, that we might know Jesus Christ well.” In fact, Archbishop Aquila truly lived the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John — “basically the street you live on” — through and through, always calling his priests and faithful to remain close to Jesus, who calls us friends because he has handed on everything he heard from the Father (see John 15:15).
“I think that is one of the greatest graces, privileges, invitations that you’ve given to us as priests, to invite us into that everything. Jesus wants to share that everything, everything that he has heard from the Father, to offer that to us,” Father Wagner added. “Then, as you encouraged us today in your homily, to come up and give everything on this altar so that we might receive all the more the riches of God.”
In fact, when he often asked Archbishop Aquila how he and his brother priests could help him more, the shepherd’s response was simple and straightforward: “Be good pastors. Be good priests. Love your people.”
“That’s where your heart is, that we might bear abundant fruit for the glory of the Father,” Father Wagner added. “Your heart is for the salvation of souls.”
A New Chapter
As the archdiocese prepares for the formal end of Archbishop Aquila’s ministry in Denver, one thing was clear: the faithful will continue to hold their spiritual father close in prayer and intercession.
“We have to pray for him and all our priests, missionaries and laity, really,” Chavez shared. “We have to keep praying for him and the whole Catholic Church, in which we believe and which is our strength every day.”
“I just hope he can rest well and know that we'll keep praying for him,” added Johnson.
“With your retirement, we can certainly rejoice, but we also know that our prayers go before you in this next phase of your Christian discipleship and your life with Jesus. We pray for you, we bless you. Even though your discipleship might be a little bit more hidden, it’s certainly not less important. We rely on your prayers, your sacrifices,” Father Wagner concluded. “In this new phase of your life, please remember us in prayer as we do you with such gratitude.”
