From Archbishop Donoghue

Rosary Rally, Homily at Benediction
October 11, 1998
Holy Family Church
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[See Georgia Bulletin account]

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our pilgrimage into the truths and mysteries of our Faith this afternoon, we have traveled the events of Christ’s life, in the company of His mother, through meditation upon the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.

Now, as you prepare to receive this special blessing with the True Body of Christ, it is as if Holy Scripture were being relived for our sake. For in being blessed with the Body of Christ, we become like the Apostles, and Mary, the Mother of our Lord, and many of those earliest of His Followers, who were granted the rare privilege of seeing Him in His Resurrected Flesh, the Risen Son of God, the Triumphant Savior, the Hope of all.

For when we look upon this enthroned Host, perfect in Its shape, spotless in Its color, we are seeing the Light of Truth, as it shone on them - Mary, the faithful Women, the Apostles, the Disciples - in the Upper Room, along the roadside on the way to Emmaus, or by the Lake of Galilee.

And so, after reviewing the events in the life of the Lord, as the Holy Rosary of our Lady has led us to do, in contemplating the Mysteries, and in order to understand full well the immense cost of the sacrifice of our Lord, and how it was shared by Mary, let us reflect briefly on the events of the Gospel we have heard.

First, let us recall that in the days of Roman Law, which held sway upon the world for many centuries, it was not unusual for death sentences to be imposed and carried out swiftly, with no appeal. After the judgement was made, it was the procedure to turn the condemned man over to the army for execution. Several soldiers of common rank, with one Centurion perhaps to oversee them, would have taken over, and run the operation, until their brutal and thankless work was done - until the criminal had been suspended on a cross, to die slowly, and as a lesson before all - not to interfere with Roman law.

And it was a custom, that whatever the condemned man had upon him, became the spoils of the common soldiers - so it was that they cast lots, and finally came, in the division of their spoils, to the cloak without seams, to our Lord’s finest garment, a wrap, woven perhaps by the old now, but still loving and gentle hands of His mother. Over this, they now cast lots, to see who would take it home, to sell it, or to use it, or to get rid of it, in the way of common possessions, in the manner we treat things that are not really worth all that much.

The early Fathers saw in this a clear meaning, and a given prophecy - a clear picture of the Church - the Church turned over to the world, a rough and covetous and scornful world - a world, where the Church would make Its way, like Its Lord, - buffeted, knocked down, and sometimes hounded almost to death - and yet, in this wicked, wayward world, this Church, this undivided mantle of Faith, sent like a lamb, time after time, into the midst of wolves, still remains, still covers and warms and protects those who would fold themselves within the Seamless Truth of Gospel and Tradition.

And the Mystics of the Church have also seen the depth of the shared suffering between our Lady and Her Son as He hung there, on the cross - the unity of their own lives in everything that He had experienced as a human being, from the moment of His physical conception, until now, the moment of His extreme humiliation, suffering and death. What else could our Lady have known except the worst that human suffering can achieve - the grief of a mother seeing the death of a child - and no amount of understanding of the prophecies made to her, and no amount of faith in the very words of her own Son, could have lightened or eased this final pain that she was to endure. Thus our Lady, our mother in Faith, continued to choose to be a part of the life of her Son, no matter the cost, no matter the pain.

But our Lord, though suffering mightily at the hands of men, was, in His acceptance of the Father’s will, totally in control of things, so that the Fathers have said, that even from the Cross, our Lord prophesies and teaches and comforts His people. For the giving over of His cloak, a sign by which the Church is sent on her mission, and especially the words he spoke immediately afterwards, can be heard as the veritable immaculate conception of the Church itself - formed in the love of the Mother once more - Woman, behold thy son! - expressed in the love of the Apostle - Behold, thy mother! - and uttered by the very Breath of God, the Holy Spirit of Christ.

And so, the love of Mary the Mother, is held up as the principal lesson for all who would learn to love Jesus, her Son - and we are bid, just as St. John was, there at the foot of the Cross, to cherish and to remain near to her, for she is our mother, and our principal guide.

All of these final things the Lord knew would happen and would be - He did them even though they meant accepting humiliation, pain, and the torment of a long farewell on the Cross, before the eyes of His mother, the eyes of the women who had stayed, and the eyes of the one Apostles whose love was pure till the end - and He did them for us - so that we will be moved, and come to repentance and salvation.

Dear friends, let us try, as we are blessed to see His Holy Face in the Host raised above us today in blessing - let us try to adequately thank Him for all these things He did for us, and let us humbly ask Mary, the Mother of our Belief, to teach us how to do it.

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