Today,
I would like to welcome the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We have with us Sister Cecilia Marie
and Sister Mary
Guadalupe, both teach
at Holy Trinity High school in Hutchinson. They have come here to
speak to our youth about vocations to religious life during PSR time.
I would suspect this is the first time most of the children have ever
seen a religious sister wearing
a habit.
Several
weeks ago at Mass, I explained the priesthood and what that entailed.
Today, I will speak about religious life, where they live in
community and will take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The
second reading speaks of
the
first man, Adam
and Jesus as
the second Adam.
The first man, Adam, was earthly, while the second Adam, Jesus is
heavenly. When God created Adam, He later wanted to give Adam a
helpmate, so God created Eve and the two become one, which was the
first marriage. Marriage
is total giving oneself of one person of the opposite sex to the
other, with a commitment to being faithful to each other unto death.
Its a permanent life long commitment of sacrificial love.
Adam
and Eve eventually fell
by their disobedience to God when they took the forbidden fruit. And
since then, all humanity waited for the
promised a redeemer when God
told the serpent, “I
will make enmity between you and the woman, between Her seed your
seed. He shall
bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.”
Here
God is speaking about a new Adam, who would restore God’s
friendship
with mankind. But God is also speaking about a new woman too. Eve
certainly couldn’t be an enmity with the devil, since she gave
into the
serpent’s ploy. So who is the new woman,
the
new Eve?
If
Jesus is the new Adam, then Mary is the new Eve. Just
as Eve was created sinless,
Mary
was
conceived
without sin, but unlike
Eve,
was always obedient. Mary never sinned Her
entire life.
Jesus
and Mary lived lives of poverty, chastity and obedience and religious
men and women are called to imitate them.
With
regard to obedience, St.
Ireneaus said, ‘The
knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosened by the obedience of Mary.’
When
the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, She was obedient to Her call to
become the Mother of God. Throughout Her entire life, Mary was
obedient to God and always did His will.
Jesus,
the new Adam, was obedient to His earthly
parents, as we learn when they found Him in the temple. Jesus was
obedient
even to death, as St. Paul said, “Taking
the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And found
in human form He humbled Himself and become obedient unto death, even
death on a
Cross.” The
obedience of Jesus, undid the disobedience of Adam and opened heaven
for us, where as heaven was closed due to Adam.
With
regard to poverty, the
Holy Family lived poverty. Jesus
was born in a cave in Bethlehem. He would later say, “the
Son of man, has no place
to lay His head.”
With
regard to chastity, Jesus
never married. Rather,
He lived
a life of celibacy
and chastity
and the Virgin Mary, even
though She was married to St. Joseph both Her and Joseph lived
together in chastity. Mary
was a perpetual virgin, never having relations with Joseph. Mary
is the pure and Immaculate Virgin.
When
religious sisters or brothers take vows of poverty chastity and
obedience, they are imitating the lives and virtues of Jesus and Mary
and are witnesses
of the kingdom of God. They point us to heaven because
they are images of Jesus, the new Adam and Mary, the new Eve.
Religious
sisters and brothers give up spouses,
married
life and children as
a sacrifice out of love for Jesus. They give themselves totally to
God with an undivided heart. Everything is given to God as a
sacrifice
of love.
They
own no
material things. Out
of simplicity and poverty, they wear the same habit.
They
have no
spouse and
no
children. Yet,
Jesus promises those who give up spouses and children will receive
many more in
this life and the next.
This is certainly true even in this life as women religious become
spiritual mothers to everyone and priests become spiritual fathers to
all.
They
give up even their own will choosing to do God’s will in
all things,
being obedient to their superior, who stands
in the place of God. They
conform not only their actions, but their mind to God’s will in all
things, by being obedient.
Religious
sacrifice themselves by their vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience, for the conversion of sinners, to make reparation for sins
and help many obtain salvation by their penance, mortification and
denying themselves by taking up their cross and following Jesus.
When
religious
sisters take their final profession, many receive a wedding
ring
because
they become a
bride of Christ. So
religious sisters do get married. They get married to God. They
are living images of the Virgin Mary, who
was poor, chaste and obedient to God in all things.
Once
when I went to Medjugorje, I went up apparition hill at night. At the
top of the mountain the statue of the Virgin Mary was
lit up by
a few flood lights and
people come at night to pray. As I was seated on a rock and praying,
out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman hovering over some rocks
and
glowing.
I
could see her
veil and long dress as
she kept coming closer and closer to me. She seemed to glide over the
rocks. I was astonished by what I saw and my heart began to race. I
kept trying to cry out, “Look,
its the Virgin Mary!”
But no words came
from my mouth. But as the glowing
woman
came closer, I realized it wasn’t the Virgin Mary. It was a
religious sister whose
face was lit up by her phone as
she was stepping
up and down on the rocks, which
made
it appear as though she was floating. This
event
reminded
me how religious sisters images of the Virgin Mary. But more
importantly, they imitate Her virtues. While they do not have an
earthly spouse, they
have a heavenly one and
everyone calls them sister and
mother as they are
spiritual
mother to everyone, as the Virgin Mary is mother of
us
all.
Each
religious order has its own charism and its own apostolate. A charism
is what sets the community apart from other religious communities
such
as their way of life, their devotions and emphasis.
Such
as Eucharistic devotion
and devotion to Mary.
An
apostolate is the work or activity the community does, such as making
hosts for Mass or taking care of the homeless.
There
are active communities and contemplative communities. Active
communities go out into the world (such as teachers, nurses, taking
care of the poor). There are contemplative communities, who primarily
pray and are not out in the world, but are often cloistered living in
an enclosed area. Some women cloistered include the Carmelites or the
Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. For men, Benedictines, Carmelites
and
Cathusians
are cloistered.
A
monk is man who lives in a cloistered monastery. A religious brother
or friar lives in a convent or friary. A religious sister lives in a
convent, while a nun lives in a cloistered monastery.
For
men, Franciscans may take care of the homeless and run a soup
kitchen.
Dominican
men are preachers and
teachers.
Benedictines are monks who pray and work. There are great number of
different kinds of communities and apostolates.
Today,
let us imitate
Jesus, the new Adam and Mary the new Eve, for by doing so, we undo
the knots of our disobedience and
make reparation for our sins,
by
striving
to obey God in all things, out love for Him, who has loved us. And
let us pray for those God is calling to become a religious brother or
sister or a priest, that they may hear God’s voice saying, “Come
and follow me!”