Tag: Homilies

St. Teresa’s Chapel, Germantown, NY

Homily given at Saint Teresa’s Motherhouse on September 14, 2020 on the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross.

+ Maria

My dear Sisters in Christ and Our Lady of Mount Carmel –

“We should glory in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered.” Thus today’s entrance verse, which we have captured in song, sums up the theology and the sense of this magnificent feast. The symbol of the cross is everywhere in our world, in practically every room in this house, on buildings, in art, in architecture. The cross is presented in every color, every type of material, with many variations, and is used and misused endlessly and universally. The symbol of the cross can be so present, that it can, sadly, become invisible and without awareness, lose its power to move and affect us. We always need as human beings, and as believers, to think again and remind ourselves again, what the cross means and says. The motto of the Carthusians is priceless and so true: “The cross is steady while the world is turning.” Lord knows that we need this steady anchor of Christ, the whole Christ who died and rose for our salvation, as the point of reference today.

Today’s feast and Holy Cross is not precisely the feast and Holy Cross of Good Friday. Today’s cross focuses us on the triumph of Christ, the Exaltation of Christ, the victory of Christ, through His cross, over all forces and powers of darkness, chaos and evil in the world. We need to go back to this over and over again, because some days it just feels like the good guys are really taking a beating. The innocent, poor, elderly and good folks seem to suffer, and others walk free. Or, we get a taste of bitterness, and wonder what it all means? The believer, you and I, have to reset our thinking, our feelings back into the world of faith and say, with the old hymn, “The strife is o’er the battle done, now is the victor’s triumph won.” In Christ, and through the cross of Christ, the brightness of our loving God will triumph and shine. Have holy hope. We can’t stop the world, or even our lives some days from turning and turning. But we can hold steady with Our Lord, and His cross enables us to hold on and go ahead.

This feast is also very important for us as Carmelites. It is the only feast mentioned in our Rule. The Carmelite Order was born in the atmosphere of the Holy Land. We celebrated the Rite of the Holy Sepulcher late into the 20^th century and, increasingly, the loss of this Rite and its spiritual dynamism is being seen as a loss. The Rite of the Holy Sepulcher and our spirituality came not from a fixation on the tomb of Christ, but the empty tomb of Christ, the Resurrected One. In the Carmelite Rite, there is no feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday before Advent, but Carmelites celebrated Easter again on that Sunday. Always, the Risen Christ present in our midst, and our being present to the Risen Christ, was the draw of our spirit. Today we would begin the fast of the Order, and it would extend until Easter. The Discalced Nuns hold on to this element, and renew their vows today, and again at the Easter Vigil right after the renewal of baptismal vows. In my Province, we renew our vows either today or on the Feast of St. Albert the Lawgiver, on Thursday.

The reading from the Book of Numbers begins today by telling us that Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert because the patience of the people was worn out. When our patience is worn out, and hopefully before it is, let us lift up our eyes to the cross, and remember the love and care of the one who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.” And as we say every Saturday at Evening Prayer I of Sunday, Jesus emptied Himself, and took our human form, in obedience to death on the cross, so that He could bring us with him to victory and glory in the Father. Jesus, lifted high on the cross attained victory, and we can announce for all time, as He said to Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This is the true, Good News. The world can revolve, but we will stay with Jesus and hold fast. “We adore you O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.”

Father Mario Esposito, O.Carm.

Avila On Hudson

September 14, 2020

 

Photo Courtesy: St. Teresa’s Motherhouse

Very Rev. Mario Esposito, O.Carm., Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa,  offered a Special Mass for the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, New York.  His homily is posted here for the members of The Mother Angeline Society.

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Maria

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ –

We are happy today to offer this Holy Mass in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on this beautiful memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. With this feast, we usher in May, often referred to as the Month of Mary, as spring continues to warm our hearts and make nature more radiant. This Shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and she is always honored here. For the Carmelites, every month is Mary’s month and wherever there is Our Lady, there is Our Lord, our Savior and Redeemer, because her true gift to the Church and world is her Son. When we go to Mary, she gives us her Son. When we go to Jesus, as we learned at the foot of the Cross, He gives us His Mother to be our Mother. We stand with the Bishops of the United States and Canada today as they renew the consecration of our countries to Mary, once again imploring Mary’s protection and guidance for our two great nations, and asking her, pleading for her intercession and blessings during this extraordinary time of pandemic. Mary is the Health of the Sick, Comforter of the Afflicted and Help of Christians. There is no doubt, in fact, that never has she been known to fail in her maternal protection and intercession.

Can we not also say that where Mary is the communion of Saints is as well, and that no saint was closer to Mary than her beloved spouse, St. Joseph? As the centuries have passed, the Church has become even more conscious of the profound role of St. Joseph in the history of our salvation and how as the true spouse of Mary and foster father of Our Blessed Lord, he was entrusted by God with the most important persons of all time and was the head and the guardian of the Holy Family. The Carmelites from our earliest days have venerated St. Joseph as the Principal Protector of our Order, Mary’s Order, and Carmelites have looked to the example of Saint Joseph as practicing  the most sublime of the virtues: purity of mind and body; dedication to the will of God; faithfulness; silence and prayerfulness; love of Jesus and Mary; obedience. He is a model of work, of fatherhood, protector of the family and the Church, lover of God and neighbor. Side by side, Jesus and Joseph worked in Nazareth and, as the gospel tells us, Jesus was never ashamed to be known as a carpenter and the son of a carpenter, a workman. God worked in the act of creating the world. St. Joseph worked at the very beginnings of God’s act of recreating the world in Christ. And now it is our time to work – faithfully and wholeheartedly in whatever duties or labor assigned to us in order to sustain and build up the world. In this, St. Joseph remains a perpetual model.

Our world, our country, our families and our neighbors are all struggling at this time in the midst of the reality of the crisis brought on by Covid-19. As people who believe in the Christ who died and rose for us, we understand that the process of dying and rising, however unpleasant it can be at times, is part of working out our salvation in His Name. We turn to Mary and St. Joseph the leaders of the Holy Family, and ask their holy help and strength. We pray to St. Joseph for all those longing to return to their work, to their jobs, to school and productive labor, and ask his intercession. We pray to Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows and Health of the Sick, for all those who are ill, and all those who care for the sick, aged and needy. In all things, we place our trust in Jesus, the son of Mary and the man not ashamed to be known as the son of Joseph the Worker, and seek His mercy today and every day.

May Venerable Mary Angeline Teresa, O.Carm., Foundress of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm who gave her life in the service of those most vulnerable and most in need, come to the aid of her beloved elderly today, as well as her Sisters and their co-workers in their daily struggle to protect and care for our precious seniors in this time of crisis.