Homily: Birthday Celebration of Mother Maria, Capuchin of Poor Clare
The Carpenters depicted in a song what I wish to share with
you in this homily on the occasion of the birthday of Mother Maria. “Why do
birds suddenly appear every time you are near? Just like me, they long to be
close to you”.
Nosotros, somos como
esos pajaritos que se acercan al verte venir. La imagen de San Francisco de
Asis siempre lleva unos pajarillos alrededor. Madre, como esos pajarillos,
estamos aqui porque queremos estar muy cerca de Usted. Just like these
birds around the statue of St. Francis of Assisi, we are here because we want
to be close to you on this very memorable day. However, I would like to point
out three specific and deeper reasons why we are here, and why we want to be “close
to you”.
First, we long to be close to you
because you give us a testimony of what heaven is like. Your life of
self-surrender, of abandonment in the hands of God, of total trust in God, to
the point of embracing God’s gift of celibacy and chastity – this life is a
witnessing of a life in heaven. We know that this witnessing is a vocation. And
as the First Reading says, “You carry this treasure in vessels of clay, so that
this all-surpassing power may not be seen as (yours) but as God’s”.
Know that we are praying hard for you, so that this
treasure, this vocation of giving testimony on earth of what heaven is like
would not be harmed as you face life’s trials. St. Paul assures us that “Trials
of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged. We are left without
answer, but do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knocked down but not
crushed”. Con nosotros, Usted puede
decirle al Señor:
Señor:
Soy barro, bien lo
sabes; frágil y maleable como él. A veces me rompo, pero tú con amor de Padre,
recompones los fragmentos, y me das una forma nueva. Vuelves a poner dentro de
mí tu imagen, la energía inmensa de tu amor, que me hace sentir tan fuerte y
capaz de todo. Esa es mi riqueza, mi único valor. No permitas que el barro lo
ensucie, Señor, porque es un regalo a repartir.
Haz con mi barro un
vaso para quien tenga sed, una lámpara para quien necesite luz. Que a cada
hermano que me encuentre en el camino vaya entregando tu amor sin reservarlo,
sin miedo al derroche, como si fuera la única persona de esta tierra; con la
urgencia del fuego, con el ímpetu del torrente, sabiendo que al final de la
tarde podré levantar mi rostro hacia ti, cansada pero feliz, porque cada una de
mis grietas tendrá sentido (http://www.reflejosdeluz.net/Paginas/lampara8.htm)
Secondly, we long to be close to you today
because you teach us how to live what St. Clare calls the “Privilege of Poverty”.
With your life of simplicity, you have shown us that there is joy in
putting totally our life into the hands of God. True poverty is abandonment of
everything in God’s hands.
Your founders, St. Francis and St. Clare, followed our Lord
Jesus Christ and His most holy Mother by having nothing of their own under
heaven. As you have been called to follow their footsteps and live this
poverty, looking at Christ Jesus, who was poor while lying in the manger, poor
while living in the world, and poor while naked on the cross, you promise to
serve the Lord in poverty and humility. May be poor in material means, but you have
the power to become rich in virtue because yours is a poverty that is inspired
by the Gospel and is supported by a firm faith in the Divine Providence of our
Heavenly Father who has His eyes fixed on those who have left all for Him.
This “Privilege of Poverty” that you strive to live faithfully
inspires us to look into our lives and to ask ourselves: How much trust we put on
God’s providence rather than on our own efforts? How do we abandon every
concern and worry of ours into God’s hands? How do we keep ourselves detached
from whatever hinders us from living in communion with God? Que sigas mostrandonos que como dice el
Señor, “Bienaventurados los pobres de espíritu, porque de ellos es el Reino de
los Cielos”.
Lastly, we long to be close to you today
because you show us that there is real, authentic joy in doing the will of God.
Real obedience is uniting our will with the will of the other so that there
will not be TWO WILLS but ONE. Jesus showed us how this is done during His
agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Not my will be done but yours”, which
means, from now on, there will be no two wills for I unite my will with your
will.
Without this union of two wills, the fusing of two wills
into one, there will be no authentic obedience. In this context, we comprehend
the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel: “Do not commit adultery… But anyone who
looks at a woman to satisfy his lust has in fact already committed adultery
with her in his heart”. Adultery is committed even by mere lustful look. It means
to say that the law is violated or disobeyed not only by doing what it
prohibits, but also by failure to follow it in spirit, that is, by not obeying
the spirit for which it is established. The disobedience to the spirit of the
law is precisely the failure to unite one’s will with that of the other.
In our vocation and life of self-surrender in the priesthood
and religious life, the demand for obedience is as radical as the Gospel demand
of pulling out one’s sinful eyes or of cutting off one’s right hand that causes
one to sin. Pero, Usted, Madre, nos ha mostrado
que esta radicalidad conlleva tambien una autentica alegria. You have shown
us that there is authentic joy in obeying radically the will of God. Thank you
for such a wonderful smile on your face whenever we see you!
The Carpenters continue: “On the day that
you were born, the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true.
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of
blue”. El día que Usted nacio’, los
ángeles se reunieron, y decidieron crear un sueño hecho realidad. Así que
rociaron polvo de luna en tu pelo dorado y luz de estrellas en tus ojos azules.
And these angels are now grown up. Ya han
crecido. Y ahora estan aqui. And they are now here, again longing to be
close to you. Why? Three points: We long
to be close to you because…
a)
… you give us a testimony of what heaven is like
– a life of celibacy and chastity.
b)
… you teach us how to live what St. Clare calls
the “Privilege of Poverty” – a life of poverty.
c)
… you show us that there is real joy in doing
the will of God – a life of obedience.
CHASTITY, POVERTY & OBEDIENCE. Big words! But thank you
for teaching us these big words with a big heart. Happy birthday!
No comments:
Post a Comment