WASHINGTON (CNS) — New Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving Nov. 28, thanking the people of his archdiocese for their faith and encouraging them to share Jesus’ good news with others.

“Jesus never tired of reminding his disciples as he prepared to return to his Father that we were to be his witnesses. We, his Church, are to be witnesses to the truth, to Jesus’ way,” the cardinal said in his homily at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“The recent call by the Pope and the emphasis in this archdiocese of the New Evangelization is a reminder that this is our mission, and we are to give thanks to God for the gift of faith and the call to be not only a disciple, but a disciple who shares the good news — to be an evangelist.”

Eight days earlier, Pope Benedict XVI had presided at a consistory at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, creating 24 new cardinals from around the world, including two U.S. prelates: Washington’s archbishop and Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Vatican official.

A standing-room-only crowd of 4,500 people attended the Mass of thanksgiving at the national shrine.

Scores of Knights of Columbus, wearing plumed hats colored gold, purple, red, green and white, processed into the shrine at the beginning of the liturgy and formed an honor guard along the aisles of what is the largest Catholic church in North America, saluting Washington’s new cardinal as he processed by.

Concelebrants at the Mass included Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, who was succeeded by then-Archbishop Wuerl in 2006, and Cardinal William Baum, who is now retired but was the archbishop of Washington from 1973 to 1980 and later served as a Vatican official.

Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Va., Cardinal Wuerl’s neighboring bishop in northern Virginia and his former seminary classmate, also concelebrated the Mass, along with about 50 priests and with Washington Auxiliary Bishops Francisco Gonzalez, Martin Holley and Barry Knestout.

Bishop Knestout, the moderator of the curia for the archdiocese, offered the new cardinal words of welcome at the beginning of the Mass, noting that just as families had gathered together around the Thanksgiving meal, at the Mass the cardinal’s archdiocesan family of faith was gathering with him around the Eucharistic table.

In his homily, Cardinal Wuerl noted, “We have just celebrated our nation’s civic holy day —Thanksgiving — and so we are mindful that it is good for us to come together to say, ‘Thank you,’ to offer thanks to God. Today we do this in the context of the Church’s great prayer of thanksgiving, the Eucharist.”

Cardinal Wuerl noted that the first thing to be thankful for is “God’s great gift to us of his Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.”

With the Mass falling on the First Sunday of Advent, the cardinal blessed the national shrine’s Advent wreath later in the liturgy.

He noted in his homily that during Advent Catholics commemorate what the faithful have celebrated for 2,000 years, that “God so loves us, he sent his only Son — his Word — to us. God became one of us so he could talk to us in human words — words that we could hear, grasp and understand — words of everlasting life.”

“We also thank God for the gift of faith,” he added. “Not only does God give us the great gift of speaking to us ... but he also gives us the grace to respond, to accept what he says to our ears and hearts.”

Cardinal Wuerl noted that the congregation at the Mass included “people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, cultural heritage and economic and social condition.” What unites them all, the cardinal added, is “our belief in God and our faith in his son and our lord — Jesus Christ.”

The Catholic Church offers a “visible, structured manifestation of the glory of God, his Kingdom at work in our world,” the cardinal said.

Washington’s archbishop thanked the people of the archdiocese for reflecting Christ’s face to their community and their world.

“As I said five weeks ago, when it was first announced that Pope Benedict XVI had appointed me to the College of Cardinals, this honor reflects the most significant place that the Church of Washington has as the Catholic Church in the capital of the most influential nation in our world today,” he said.

Cardinal Wuerl noted that he had received a cardinal’s ring in Rome, as a sign of his special bond to Pope Benedict, the successor to St. Peter, and his cardinal’s ring, he said, symbolizes “the special tie of the Church of Washington to the pope.”

After the Mass, the cardinal greeted people for nearly two hours at a reception held in the lower level of the shrine.

“My prayer is that God will give him strength to shepherd his people. A lot is demanded of him,” said Teresa Nwankwo, a Nigerian Catholic who is a member of St. Joseph Parish in Largo, Md. She wore a traditional African headdress, colored purple, and said that the cardinal’s message of sharing the faith was important for today’s world.

That day’s Gospel reading echoed that theme when Christ “called all people to step out of darkness and into the light. ... Christ came into the world to bring light,” she told the Catholic Standard, Washington’s archdiocesan newspaper.