Mary Teaches us Receptivity, Tenderness, and Hope: A Homily for all masses of the Weekend of October 12-13, the 28 th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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1 Mary Teaches us Receptivity, Tenderness, and Hope: A Homily for all masses of the Weekend of October 12-13, the 28 th Sunday in Ordinary Time with him. 2 Timothy (the second reading). There is a story told about Blessed Teresa of Calcutta that has much to teach us. A young boy who was living alone on the streets was brought into one of her hospitals. He was covered in dirt from head to toe. One of the volunteers tried to give him a bath, but each time she went to touch him with the sponge he cried out and began to punch her. Another volunteer tried, and got the same reaction. A third volunteer tried, and the boy just cried out and punched all-the-more. At this point, Mother Teresa entered the room, heard the commotion, and came over to see what was going on. The volunteers explained, and Mother said, Let me try. She picked up the sponge to bathe the child. Now, the child did not know this was Mother Teresa. The child only knew that if someone was touching him he was going to get hurt. He was filled with fear, doubt, and pain. So he started screaming and repeatedly punching Mother Teresa. She stopped and stepped back, giving him a chance to calm down. She started again to bathe him, and he screamed and punched again. Then she stepped back, put the sponge down and prayed. She then stepped forward and embraced the child. He screamed and punched, but she did not let go. She persevered and took the blows until the child had no more fight in him. She took the blows until the child had emptied himself of his fear, doubt, and pain. Then the child rested in Mother Teresa s arms and received her tender embrace. She then stepped back, picked up the sponge, and bathed the child showering him with hope. with him. 2 Timothy Last month we took the first of three major spiritual steps in front of us for this semester we turned to the Holy Spirit, asking for a renewed outpouring of the Spirit upon us and giving the Spirit within us permission to breathe free. It was a powerful step, and many graces flowed through it. Now we prepare to take our second major spiritual step we turn to the spouse of the Holy Spirit, we turn to Mary, who teaches us receptivity, tenderness, and hope. 1

2 Mary teaches us receptivity. Mary was open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. At the annunciation, even though she did not understand and was initially afraid, she was open to receive the Son of God in her virginal womb. Often we ourselves are not open but closed. Like the boy in the story, we go through life on the defensive, always looking at the one before us as someone who might hurt us and this can even carry over to our relationship with God. Like the boy in the story we are often so filled with fear, doubt, and pain that we cannot receive good from another. Mary teaches us that in order to be receptive to the grace God offers us, we must empty ourselves and make room within us to receive His love. We often view emptiness as a negative thing but in the spiritual life emptiness has a positive purpose for it makes room for us to be receptive. Caryll Houselander beautifully describes Mary s virginal emptiness by saying that it is not a formless emptiness, a void without meaning; on the contrary it has a shape, a form given to it by the purpose for which is intended. It is the emptiness like the hollow in the reed, the narrow riftless emptiness, which can have only one destiny: to receive the piper s breath and to utter the song that is in his heart. It is emptiness like the hollow in the cup, shaped to receive water or wine. It is emptiness like that of the bird s nest, built in a round, warm ring to receive the little bird. Sometimes that space within us that is supposed to be empty gets filled with so many things that do not correspond to its purpose. Again, Houselander tells us that strangely enough, those who complain the loudest of the emptiness of their lives are usually people whose lives are overcrowded, filled with trivial details, plans, desires, ambitions, unsatisfied cravings for passing pleasures, doubts, anxieties and fears; and these sometimes further overlaid with exhausting pleasures which are an attempt, and always a futile attempt, to forget how pointless such peoples lives are... They have no sense of being related to any abiding beauty, to any indestructible life; they are afraid to be alone with their unrelated hearts. If we are to be receptive to God s grace if we are to be able to receive His love, we must persevere through the difficult interior work of emptying ourselves before Him. This is a psychological and a spiritual process, which can be aided by counseling and may take the spiritual form of directly stating in prayer before the Lord that we empty ourselves before him and give him explicit permission to empty us of anything that is not of Him. St. Augustine, our patron, asks us: suppose that God wishes to fill you with honey [a symbol of God's tenderness and goodness]; but if you are full of vinegar, where will you put the honey? The vessel, that is your heart, must first be enlarged and then cleansed, freed from the vinegar and its taste. This requires hard work and is painful, but in this way alone do we become suited to that for which we are destined (Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi 33). Let us remember that we have given permission to the Holy Spirit to 2

3 breathe free within us, and the Spirit has the power and the strength we need to persevere. Now we turn to Mary, who in her virginal emptiness received the Son of God, and who forms us in the emptiness necessary for us to be receptive to the grace and love God offers us. Mary teaches us tenderness. In the stable, Mary held her infant Son in her lap, caressing him with tenderness. Again, at the foot of the cross, she tenderly held her Son. Through it all, she offered words of encouragement, strength, love, and tenderness. When we are filled with fear, doubt, and pain, it is difficult for us to experience tenderness. While we must always be on guard against evil, we must be free to discern so as not to miss the good that may be before us. Like the little boy in the story, we often, without discernment, mistrust the tenderness of others and perhaps see our own capacity for tenderness as a dangerous weakness. Pope Francis has spoken often about tenderness. He recognizes that some see it as weakness, and he points to the chaste spouse of Mary, Joseph, to teach us differently: Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness! This fear or mistrust of tenderness can even become part of our relationship with God. Pope Francis also says that the Lord loves us tenderly. The Lord knows that beautiful science of caresses, the tenderness of God. He does not love us with words. He comes close - closeness - and gives us His love with tenderness. Closeness and tenderness! The Lord loves us in these two ways, He draws near and gives all His love even in the smallest things: with tenderness. And this is a powerful love, because closeness and tenderness reveal the strength of God s love... [but] it is more difficult to let God love us, than to love Him! The best way to love Him in return is to open our hearts and let Him love us. Let Him draw close to us and feel Him close to us. This is really very difficult: letting ourselves be loved by Him. Indeed, to learn to trust again when we have been hurt we must persevere with courage. But let us remember that we have given permission to the Holy Spirit to breathe free within us, and the Spirit has the power and the strength we need. Now we turn to Mary, who can help us with this. She can shower her own tenderness upon us, staying in the embrace even if we scream and punch, and in that embrace teach us how to receive tenderness, that we might live it and share it with others. Mary teaches us hope. Faith is the recognition of the great presence of God made man, a 3

4 presence in our lives that is certain. Faith is a form of knowledge. I know that God is and that He is with me. If Faith is to recognize a presence that is certain, hope is to recognize with certainty a future that is born of this faith. Faith is to recognize a certainty; from this certainty, certainty for the future is born. Hope is based on a Presence that you possess a Presence that belongs to you and that Presence is Jesus Christ, sent by the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Like the boy in the story, when our present has seemed dark and dangerous for so long, it is difficult to hope. Our deepest desire for hope is to be met in Jesus Christ, who is present to us not in passing things. Certainly we need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain. The fact that it comes to us as a gift is actually part of hope. God is the foundation of hope: not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety (Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi 31). Hope gives us the strength to face the present. Hope gives us the direction to move forward. Mary, who believed that the promises given to her would be fulfilled, can teach us to walk along the pathway of hope. How do we find the way? Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us? With her yes she opened the door of our world to God himself; she became the living Ark of the Covenant, in whom God took flesh, became one of us, and pitched his tent among us (Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi 50). Let us remember that we have the strength to persevere in hope, for we have given the Holy Spirit within us permission to breathe free. If you have not taken that step, go back to it before moving on to the then next, for now, those of us who have taken that first step, turn, freed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to Mary, the Mother of Hope, to guide us. For our second major spiritual step of the semester, we turn to Mary, praying a novena to Our Lady of Hope. The novena will begin this coming Friday, October 18 th and run through Saturday, October 26 th. The novena prayer is available at the doors of the church and can be found on our website. You may pray the novena on your own, as a family, in a ministry or in the church publically on weekdays in association with Morning Prayer and Mid-day Prayer, and on Saturday in association with the 8 a.m. mass. On Sunday, October 27 th, at the noon mass, we will bless this statue of our Lady of Hope and consecrate St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center to her. In this we are in communion with our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who this weekend consecrates the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The journey to receptivity, tenderness, and hope is not always easy it requires much interior work on our part. But by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of Mary, we have what we need, and we will walk forward, in the light of the new day to which the Lord has brought us, into a future full of hope. 4

5 with him. 2 Timothy Let us Pray: Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen. 5