Homily for Presentation of the Lord, Lk 2:22-40 As she stood in line with other new mothers, holding their first born sons in their arms, looking at the majesty of the Jerusalem Temple, we can wonder what it was that Mary was pondering in her heart about the future of her son as she prepared to ransom him to his Heavenly Father. After God had delivered the People of Israel from slavery in Egypt, he mandated all first born males belonged to Him and were to be set aside to serve The Lord. To show that the first born sons continued to belong to the Lord, a rite of redemption was performed through the sacrifice of a lamb or if you were poor two turtle doves. While many other religions of the day would sacrifice newborns to appease their gods, the God of Israel did not desire their destruction but consecrated them to belong totally to him. It was on this day that the Lord Jesus was offered up to his Father as his beloved, as the one who would be a light to the nations and glory of his people Israel. He was consecrated to his Father s work, to proclaim the Gospel and give himself totally to his Father through a life of obedience, poverty and chaste celibacy. In doing so he provided the model for every man and woman who dedicated their lives to the Lord as cloistered monks and nuns and religious brothers and sisters. Today s feast is an occasion to pray especially for all religious,
so that the light Jesus brought into the world would continue to burn brightly in the lives of these men and women. But many today suggest very pessimistically that religious life is dead, that the time of monks, nuns and religious brothers and sisters is over, the experiment has run its course. To that I for one say no. Religious life is not dead and it remains an essential witness in our Church, one we cannot afford to abandon or dismiss as no longer relevant in a highly secularized and anti- religious age. I want to be very optimistic to the point of being naïve that religious life is manifesting signs of vitality and inspiration all over the world because of the courageous witness of religious men and women for the past 2000 years and the hopeful expectation that new witnesses will arise till the end of days. It goes without saying that for all of us who live in the city of Lethbridge that the Church here has been richly blessed by the service of men and women religious from the very beginnings of the Church in our city. In fact religious sisters are with us here today and they continue to be an inspiring example in our hospitals, parish and other ministries throughout the city. To them we say thank you for dedicating your lives to Christ, the Church and the world, and may the Lord continue to bless you all the days of your lives.
And it is exciting in the Church today that there appears to be a revival in many parts of the world of men and women once again accepting the call to religious life. It would be impossible to say something about all of these religious but I would like to share one experience that gives me tremendous hope that religious life is far from dead but rather is a light burning ever more brightly! It all began on Easter Sunday 2011. I and 9 of my seminary classmates, all deacons at the time, we about the make the long 10+ drive from Toronto to New York City for our year end retreat as a preparation for ordination to the priesthood. As we headed to the Big Apple, we were invited to make a slight detour to Stamford, Conn to have Easter Supper at Villa Maria Guadalupe, the retreat centre of the Sisters of Life. Now we knew the Sisters of Life fairly well. This order of religious sisters began with Cardinal O Conner of NYC after his visit to the Dachau concentration camp where he looked in horror at the aftermath of the Holocaust and pondered how he could help to end a new holocaust in our world, that of abortion. In time under his fatherly care the Sisters of Life were born in 1991 to serve the Lord and be engaged in many different ministries to promote a culture of life, among the most inspiring being their outreach to pregnant mothers in crisis situations to help them choose life and
begin a new life with their child by helping them find work, teaching them how to raise the child and affirm them that the Sisters would support them along the way. They care for both mother and child with compassion, non- judgment and hope. We were blessed at the seminary to have the Sisters of Life temporarily live in a cloister within the seminary until they began their own monastery in a poor part of Toronto. Most mornings as we would enter the seminary chapel we would see many handwritten notes from the sisters asking us to pray for various women and families who were considering abortions, for those who were about give birth and for anyone who needed our prayers. As we drove up to Villa Maria Guadalupe, exhausted from the long drive but refreshed by the peaceful grounds that the retreat house resided on, I do not think any of us were prepared for what would happen that night. After we joined the Sisters for prayer, we entered the dining room for the Easter Feast. I don t know if you have ever walked into a room with around 200 sisters within, all dressed in their simple blue and white habit and white veils, welcoming us to thunderous claps, I can assure you it is a life changing experience! Each of us was set at a table of sisters, most not much older than ourselves, with a special place setting that had a prayer card telling us they were praying for
our upcoming ordinations. The dinner was wonderful, the company inspiring and to top off the night the Sisters were told as an Easter gift they would be allowed to watch the newest Narnia movie. Now I did not grow up with sisters so hearing 200 females voice shout for joy about watching a movie was quite the experience! As we got back into our cars to go to our retreat none of us knew what to say. All I could think of was what indescribable joy radiated from these sisters! And perhaps more than that I wondered had I ever been loved that much in my life or rather had I ever experienced the love of Jesus Christ so profoundly as he lived so deeply in the hearts of these sisters! Praise God more and more women are discerning whether to join these sisters or other religious orders. I can see why, to live their life is to taste the joy of the gospel and desire to proclaim it to others! These sisters have inspired me to believe that religious life is far from dead. It may not be as prevalent as it once was but it continues to give joy to our world. It is with such gratitude then that we must pray for and thank all religious for their years of service and their future ministry. And we cannot fail to inspire and encourage young men and women to consider the religious life, to be a new generation providing the light of Christ to the world.
Pope Francis has declared 2015 to be the Year of Consecrated and Religious Life. May the prayers of the Church inspire young men and women to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to give their lives to the Father like Christ did, to embrace poverty, obedience and chaste celibacy for the kingdom, to serve their brothers and sisters, to give themselves totally to the work of God, to accept whatever sacrifices come their ways as a sharing in the Cross of Jesus Christ, and to know that unquenchable joy of become a living sacrifice of praise to the glory of God!