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Several years
back, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Villanova
University proudly announced in a letter to the faculty that a statue of
St. Rita of Cascia had been placed in one of the two courtyards of the
St. Augustine Center for the Liberal Arts. Intrigued by what the statue
looked like, I ventured down to the courtyard from my third-floor office
to scrutinize the statue.
When I first gazed
upon the statue, I was stupefied! It wasn’t St. Rita of Cascia.
It was St. Agnes!
“How did he know
that?”
you may be wondering.
Well, first of all,
the woman was holding a palm branch. The palm is an ancient symbol of
victory over persecution, torture and, for Christians, death. Second of
all, the gown the woman was wearing was presumably white. Like an
infant’s baptismal garment, the white gown symbolizes the martyr’s
blood-stained garment cleansed and purified by the martyr’s fidelity to
Christ. St. Rita’s symbol isn’t the palm. No, it’s the stigmata
on her forehead. Furthermore, not being a martyr, St. Rita’s robe
isn’t a bleached white robe. No, it’s the habit of an Augustinian
cloistered nun.
Today’s second
reading from the Book of Revelations tells of a vision of countless
people from every nation standing in the presence of God and the Paschal
Lamb, Jesus Christ, whose victory over the power of sin and death we
recount once again this Easter season. Their white robes recall their
physical and spiritual achievement: no personal feeling or earthly power
dissuaded them from remaining faithful to God’s word. No, those palm
branches recall their victory! They remained faithful to God’s
word in the face of a host of challenges, to the point that every single
one of these women and men—like Christ himself—was so detested for their
Gospel witness that members of their families, their friends and fellow
citizens, and even their co-religionists believed killing them would
finally put an end to them and the truth they proclaimed so boldly.
In that sense, this
selection from the Book of Revelations gives assurance to Christians in
any era who suffer persecution because all of this is of no ultimate
consequence. No, for Christians who suffer persecution, what is of
ultimate consequence is fidelity to God’s word, not public opinion or
peer pressure. And, that word is Jesus Christ, whose rejection,
suffering, agony, betrayal, and death set the pattern for his disciples
to imitate, that is, if the desire of his disciples is to be one of
those people from every nation, standing in the presence of God and the
paschal Lamb, wearing a white robe, and holding the palm—victors over
the power of sin and death whose fidelity raised each of them to the
light of the resurrection. Meanwhile, those who taunted, scorned,
derided, betrayed, tortured, and sought the execution of these women and
men now wallow hopelessly in the darkness of death, eternally aware of
what they have forsaken and rendering them absolutely impotent to change
the outcome.
This vivid contrast,
the “vanquished who emerge victorious” and the “victors who are
vanquished,” teaches us that the choices we make do have
consequences…eternal consequences. The lives we construct by our
freely-willed choices is a deadly serious matter, indeed.
The saints—like St.
Agnes and St. Rita of Cascia—provide assurance in the midst of life’s
trials and tribulations, to press onwards, not to flag in our efforts,
and—despite adversity—to remain steadfast to God’s word and the
spiritual gifts given us in Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist,
the three sacraments of our initiation into God’s holy family.
Today’s gospel
quotes Jesus saying “not one of these shall be snatched from my hand.”
This is a consoling statement, too. Nobody and nothing can take any one of us
by force away from Christ. That is, unless we were to say (or demand),
“Let me go,” so that we can turn our back on Christ and then chase
after something we might want but don’t really need.
It happens so
easily.
How many spouses
place their own self-interest ahead of doing what love, honor, and
obedience require—in effect, demanding “Let me go!”—so that they can do
what they want rather than what they need to do?
How many young
people seek to be “part of the crowd” that they cast aside what virtue
and honor require—in effect, demanding “Let me go!”—so that they can
engage in misbehavior, illegal behavior, and immoral behavior?
How many young
couples turn their backs on the gospel value of chastity—in effect,
demanding “Let me go!”—so they can live together even though they’re not
married?
This really is the
crux of today’s readings. God has offered us through Jesus Christ the
gift of protection from ultimate harm. When we suffer, when we are in
pain, and when we find ourselves at death’s door—in sum, whenever we’re
overwhelmed—God has promised to be with us in Jesus Christ the Good
Shepherd with the very firm grip.
But, events do
conspire and put us to the test. And, it’s easy whenever we’re
overwhelmed to want break loose from Christ’s grip in order to pursue
false illusions that promise to set us free.
Think about it. How
often do these six choices challenge you:
1.
that of life—to
be hopeful and confident in adversity to the promises you made in
Baptism and Confirmation—or that of death—to allow despair and
fear to dissuade you from your eternal goal?
2.
that of life—to
be courageous and to stand up for the truth God has breathed into
your heart—or that of death—to succumb to peer pressure and
public opinion that portray our Christian and Catholic convictions as
“foolish, “out of touch with reality,” and “seriously outdated”?
3.
that of life—to
choose friends from among virtuous people who set standards for you to
live up to—or that of death—to live down to the standards of
those you call “friends” yet whose lives betray virtue, honor, and morality?
4.
that of life—to
be decent and chaste, recognizing that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit—or that of death—to engage in every sort of indecency and
from of unchastity, transforming this gift of God into a mausoleum, that
is, something beautiful to behold on the outside but full of maggot
fodder on the inside?
5.
that of life—to
trust in God and the Church for guidance, support, and encouragement in
your struggles, especially through the Sacrament of Penance—or that
of death—to distrust God’s revealed truth and to trust instead
cleverly-crafted, half-truths and distortions that make lies sound like
truths, what is immoral sound moral, and what is illegal sound legal?
6.
that of life—to
be honest by exercising candor in your relationships with others—or
that of death—to deceive yourself to the point that you actually
believe your lies are the “honest-to-God’s” truth?
The good news this
Easter season—the “Gospel of Life,” Pope John Paul II called it—is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ once again gives
us the choice that God gave the Chosen People, “I place before you two
choices. Choose life or choose death.”
No matter how far we’ve strayed and no matter how far
we’ve wandered from the path by opting for the “Gospel of Death,” we can choose once again to remain firmly
in the grip of Jesus Christ—the Good Shepherd—and confident in the
promise that nothing will steal us away from him. We can choose
the Gospel of Life by seeking once again the white robe and palm of victory
as we work at imitating Jesus Christ
along with the multitudes of St. Agnes’ and St. Rita’s from all nations
who faced down evil in their own lives and whose patient endurance and
fidelity looked absurd to all of those who judged them by human
standards.
For those who choose
the Gospel of Life—even when everything appears lost by worldly
standards—Christ
the Good Shepherd extends his hand to grasp our hands and to lead is along the
path to victory over the Gospel of Death. |
HOMILY
